It seems I am wrong on a grammar topic and I just can't cope with that

[margoandjerry]

I always thought words like "however", "nonetheless", "therefore" were conjunctions which just held various clauses of a sentence together, like "and" and "but".

But my colleague just told me that they were adverbs not conjuctions so they amend the verb rather than joining clauses. So you shouldn't write:

"We were going to go to the seaside; however, the weather is poor so we won't go"

You should write "We were going to go to the seaside. The weather is, however, poor...".

I am freaked out at this. Oxford Eng Dict says he's right as well. Help me cope with this

The second sentence does read better.

I pooh-pooh the OED on this, and I think either construction is fine.

I always thought it was wrong to put a comma after the word however as it acts as the comma?

Well according to this you are correct

Unless you are writing a thesis or a legal document the former is acceptable, so long as you know the latter is 'more correct'.

Oh - no I am wrong. It's actually bad grammar to say

"(words and stuff), however, (more words and stuff).

I think however sounds a bit clumsy in the first eg: 'but' sounds better.

Yeah, beaniestevie, your example is better than mine! And that's what I use however for all the time! And it's wrong .

It's the adverbiness of it that I can't cope with. It feels like a conjunction to me.

Note that in the link provided by tarantula they are called 'connecting adverbs'. This sounds like a fudge of conjunction and adverb to me. Grammatical categories are notoriously difficult to pin down once you get beyond the 'clear' examples; the words you're talking about can be (and are) used as adverbs, but also as conjunctions. As dictionaries, grammar books etc. don't like saying "Could be an adverb, could be a conjunction, it depends" they fudge it. Let usage be your guide... I know that's a dangerous thing to say to a pedant though

It's funnny how people who specialise in grammar have this weird ontological hang-up. They want to ask 'What kind of a thing is this word? -- Adverb? Conjunction?'

It's a lot simpler and truer to practice if we just ask 'How is this word correctly used? What constructs are accceptable?'

Trouble is, threadwworm, that people's judgement of what's 'acceptable' or 'correct' is usually based on sources such as dictionaries, grammars etc. so it all becomes a bit circular!