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I attempted to write

Of course, you may be subject to other ordinances outside city limits, however most townships and cities within this county have adopted similar rules.

but grammarly suggested I add a comma after however:

Of course, you may be subject to other ordinances outside city limits, however, most townships and cities within this county have adopted similar rules.

Is it required(or simply good practice) to have a comma after "however" when used this way, and if so what is the rule I need to understand? It feels more natural to leave it out, though I suspect that's an artifact of conversational English where commas are equated with pauses. In the sentence preceding this one, though, I could have used "however" or "but" in place of "though" and in neither case is a comma suggested after the word. And yet in the sentence preceding this one, "though" requires a comma after it - and that one feels correct!

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  • Why not place a period before "however" and start a new sentence and there place a comma after "however"? Jul 3, 2018 at 16:37
  • Related: ell.stackexchange.com/questions/8743/…
    – user230
    Jul 3, 2018 at 16:38
  • You have a run-on sentence. You took two complete sentences and put them together without a conjunction (like and, or, or, but). Your first sentence ends after "limits". If you wanted to tie in the two thoughts, you would need "but", not "however". Even with the comma before "however", that sentence is not correct.
    – urnonav
    Jul 3, 2018 at 17:01

2 Answers 2

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According to Merriam-Webster, using "however" as a conjunction means:

in whatever manner or way that -- e.g., will help however I can

Otherwise, "however" is an adverb.

This means that "however" should not be used to join two independent clauses (the way you would use "and", "but" and "or"). Instead, the typical way to use "however" is this:

I like watching television at home. Going to the movies, however, is very stressful.

That is most likely why Grammarly wants the comma.

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In school, I was taught that 'however', when used in the way it is in your sentence, is an interjection indicating that what is said in the following clause is a counter point to what was previously said. Because it is an interjection it is set apart with a comma between 'however' and the following clause.

This may be nonsense, but it has always served me well.

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