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Can I rephrase this sentence

Our school only has Apple computers; however, some students are more familiar with PCs.

to this one without changing the meaning?

However, our school only has Apple computer; some students are more familiar with PCs.

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Not as a standalone sentence. "However" can be used at the start of a sentence, but in that case it is indicating a contrast with something in a previous sentence, not with something later in teh same sentence. "However" can often be replaced with "but". If that makes no sense, the use of "however" may be incorrect.

You could, however, recast the sentence as:

Even though our school only has Apple computers, some students are more familiar with PCs.

Exception (to "however"="but"): there is another sense of 'however" as in:

However you do it, you must get it done.

Here "however" does not mean 'but" but rather 'in whatever way" or 'by whatever method", but that is not the case in the example in the question.

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  • I was thinkig I could use "however" just like "although". Thank you
    – Talha Özden
    Jun 11, 2019 at 23:03
  • @tal they have, in a sense, opposite meanings. If you can say "X, however Y" you can *usually say "Although Y, X" Note the reversed order.
    – David Siegel
    Jun 11, 2019 at 23:06
  • Hmm, okay. Can't I say "Although X,Y" in this case as well?
    – Talha Özden
    Jun 11, 2019 at 23:15
  • @tal Not with the same meaning. I'll try to add some specific examples to the answer when I have a bit more time.
    – David Siegel
    Jun 11, 2019 at 23:19
  • That would be great :)
    – Talha Özden
    Jun 11, 2019 at 23:29

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