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While writing English text, I sometimes inverse the principal and subordinate clauses (as I think they are named).

But Grammarly systematically flags this as an error and proposes to rewrite the sentence in the "correct" order. For example:

In that case, we may find solutions to protect your keys and credentials.

Grammarly suggests rewriting the sentence as:

We may find solutions to protect your keys and credentials in that case.

In the first form, my feelings are that a greater emphasis is put on the subordinate clause "in that case". But it may be a bias coming from my native language (French).

  • Is the first form grammatically correct?
  • Should I follow Grammarly's suggestion and systematically rewrite those sentences as suggested by the application?
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    Your sentence is fine and idiomatically preferable to that suggested by Grammarly.
    – Ronald Sole
    Jun 17, 2022 at 11:42
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    Nearly every question on ELL about Grammarly involves Grammarly breaking natural language and making it unnatural or even incorrect. This is one of those.
    – gotube ♦
    Jun 17, 2022 at 15:27
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    @gotube Perhaps we should create a "Grammarly" tag!
    – MarcInManhattan
    Jun 17, 2022 at 15:44
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    @MarcInManhattan Yes, and questions with the tag get automatically closed with the message, "You're right."
    – gotube ♦
    Jun 17, 2022 at 16:59
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    couple of notes: firstly my Grammarly doesn't flag either sentence. It does insist on a comma after "case" when it is placed first. So your Grammarly isn't my Grammarly! Secondly "In that case" is a prepositional phrase, not a subordinate clause (it has no verb)
    – James K
    Jun 18, 2022 at 5:14

1 Answer 1

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A phrase such as "in that case" (which would usually be considered a prepositional phrase, not a clause) may come at the beginning of a clause, so your original sentence is fine. (The comma is correct, too.) It should not be flagged as an error, and there is no need to follow Grammarly's suggestion.

Placing the prepositional phrase at the beginning of the sentence does place more emphasis on it, but in this case the difference is very minor.

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