Japanese uses _’or’_ less than Western languages, and I sometimes feel that
I’m using または or あるいは an awful lot more than I should. Especially, is it legit
to _begin_ a sentence with these words?

Let’s consider the following conversation.

> When shall we meet?
>
> How about today? **Or** maybe Wednesday?

Can it become:

> いつ会いましょうか。
>
> 今日はどうですか。 **または** 、水曜日でも...

Another example:

> My name was not on the list.
>
> You must have signed up too late. **Or** maybe it was just a mistake?

Is this correct?

> 僕の名前はリストに書いてなかった。
>
> 遅れて申し込んだでしょう。 **または** 、何かの間違いだけだったかも？
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grammar word-choice conjunctions
Is it possible to begin a sentence with または?
I think it is possible but there may be some people who feel a bit odd in
daily conversation. I rarely use または in daily conversation.

I think there are some conjunctions which are a bit odd in daily conversation
like そして、なぜななら、したがって.

Of course, they are commonly used in writings and speeches.
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Yes, it is possible. This shares the similar opinion with English counterpart,
whether conjunctions can be used to start a sentence
([Yes](https://english.stackexchange.com/q/16976) indeed, [you
can](http://www.dailywritingtips.com/can-you-start-sentences-
with-%e2%80%9cand%e2%80%9d-and-%e2%80%9cbut%e2%80%9d/)).

**Begin with または or not**

For written Japanese language, look at the [full-text search result of または on
ウィキペディア](https://ja.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?search=%E3%81%BE%E3%81%9F%E3%81%AF&title=%E7%89%B9%E5%88%A5:%E6%A4%9C%E7%B4%A2&fulltext=%E6%A4%9C%E7%B4%A2)
for example. From the first 20 matching items, I have found only one article
i.e.
[フィード](https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%83%95%E3%82%A3%E3%83%BC%E3%83%89)
that uses `または` at the beginning of a sentence (Text in bold).

> フィード（英: feed）とは、ウェブサイト、特にブログやニュースサイトなどのコンテンツの概要もしくはコンテンツ全体を配信用に加工した文書のこと。
> **または** そのファイルフォーマットのことをいう。 [...]

Even within a page of the first 100 matching items, `。または` (include period
when using 'Find' in web browser) had only 9 matches, which is less than 10%.
Therefore, we can assume that Japanese articles often use it somewhere in the
middle of sentences.

So, is it possible to begin a sentence with または? Yes. Should one begin as
such? Not quite, especially when conversation could be expressed in other
ways.

**Without または**

Notice that the use of conjunction "or" in given conversations are _not_
intended to limit the choices of the listener to reply, but for the speaker to
give suggestions in subsequent order. For this reason, the conjunction at
beginning would be better removed at all.

In the first conversation, I'd suggest to remove the words `or` and `または`.
Then, I'd suggest to replace `...でも`(even; also) with `...とか` (such as; like).

> When shall we meet?
>
> いつ会いましょうか。
>
> How about today? May be ( **like** ) Wednesday?
>
> 今日はどうですか。 水曜日 **とか** 。

In the second conversation, the words are removed similarly. Assuming "was not
on the list" is _not_ because name was not written earlier, I'd suggest to
replace `書いてなかった` (did not write) with `載ってなかった` (not mentioned). Otherwise,
it is `書かれてなかった` (was not written).

> My name was **not mentioned/not written** on the list.
>
> 僕の名前はリストに **載ってなかった** ・ **書かれてなかった** 。
>
> You must have signed up too late. May be it was just a mistake?
>
> 遅れて申し込んだでしょう。 何かの間違いだっただけかも？

If the speaker feels `かも?` cause the speech to end abruptly, consider to add
`しれない。` to the sentence and remove the question mark.

> [...] May be it was just a mistake.
>
> [...] 何かの間違いだっただけ **かもしれない** 。

Regarding `間違いだけだった` of original sentence, this translates to "was [the] only
mistake". In contrast, `間違いだっただけ` of revised sentence translates to "was a
mistake only" and English could rearrange to "was only (just) a mistake". This
may be tricky to understand.

Above all, the idea is to give up the habit of using `or` and `または` at the
beginning of sentences. The repetitive use of these conjunctions is quite
awkward to hear in conversations.
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