Introductory words in English carry the same semantic load as in Russian. They play a supporting role, but our speech without them would become more impersonal and poor.
Introductory words allow you to:
- Express your or collective attitude: unfortunately (unfortunately), (unfortunately), to tell the truth (honestly).
- Streamline your speech: well (so, well), therefore (therefore), in addition (besides).
- Indicate the probability of the event: probably (probably), surely (for sure).
- Indicate the source of information: in my opinion (in my opinion), in my view (from my point of view), as to be said (they say), as someone said (as someone said).
- Take time, give yourself a break to ponder the following words: among other things (among other things), by the way (by the way), at all (in general), in other words (in other words).
Of course, the list of functions that introductory words can perform can be continued. In any case, with their help you make your speech more saturated, concrete and consistent. It is very useful to know the introductory words for those who are going to take exams in English. They will not only help to win a few seconds during the monologue, but will also make the written essay more logical and coherent.
How to distinguish introductory words in English from other parts of speech?
This is not always easy. There are service words, the meaning of which may overlap with the meaning of the introductory words. For instance:
Finally I could visit my mother-in-law.
I had a holiday and decided to visit parents or at last my mother-in-law.
In the first example, finally is equivalent to "after everything", therefore, is a service word. It cannot be removed from a sentence without loss of meaning. In the second, at last can be omitted. The proposal will become less personal, lose the tinge of regret (you can visit the mother-in-law, but not really want to), but will not lose its significance as a whole.
Pronounce introductory words in English should be highlighted in intonation. And then we'll talk about whether you need to isolate them when writing.
Should introductory words be punctuated?
What is the situation in Russian? Introductory words are necessarily marked with commas or (in rare cases) dashes. In English, as you know, punctuation rules are more flexible and depend on the intonation of the author. That is why introductory words very often do not stand out with punctuation marks. Unfortunately, for many students, this flexibility is difficult. To them, accustomed to the clear rules of the Russian language, it seems difficult in each case to decide for themselves whether to put a comma. Others, on the contrary, begin to enthusiastically put punctuation marks wherever they have to, although the minimum rules for their arrangement still exist. Advice for everyone: read more original texts in English, gradually you will learn to understand where it is worth highlighting such turns and where not.
In addition, pay attention to how far the meaning of the introductory word is far from the meaning of the main sentence. The punctuation mark also depends on the degree of remoteness. If the introductory words are used “in passing”, and having said this phrase, you will hear clear pauses around it, it can be enclosed in brackets. The mildest degree of "distance" is made out by commas.
A number of such revolutions should be highlighted with commas on both sides (for example, “however” - “however”). Some introductory words are marked with a comma only if they are at the beginning of a sentence (for example, "also" - "also"), but not in the middle sentences. This is quite logical. Why overload the sentence with punctuation marks, because this introductory word is very short. So, punctuation is affected by the length and location of a word in a sentence.