I will also grant you that early English was not totally isolated. Woohoo, I love the “caused by” trick. Nonetheless: “His” is a pronoun, not a noun. @Rob Poole & thebluebird11: Guest Author’s post was hard to grasp, I agree, especially if one didn’t receive a decent education in English grammar, as this one didn’t. IMHO, unless something is actually OWED (DUE) TO someone, I propose that we avoid using the phrase “due to.” A library book is due. Thank you for your attention and happy New Year. In any other language you would say “have you a pencil.” That is a hangover from the Old Norse. And we believe those 4% are the majority because of The Example Rule. So, adieu . (a) Duty of citizenship. What rule was made because of you? People get frustrated because posts get convoluted. Because they act as nouns, are they always preceded by “because of,” never “due to”? Could you make some examples to explain more about this grammar rule? Many are of the opinion that both of the pairs refer to the same thing, and that they can be used as synonyms. As you say in your example with the “mucked-up wind screen”, both sentences sound correct to a native speaker, which in my mind makes both sentences correct English regardless of what the original use of “due to” was. Let me just say that I was speaking in generalities and trying to condense hundreds of years history into a few short comments. In some cases, the sentence cannot be started with “because of” whereas in some cases it can. The fact that ships are feminine in English (“she”) come straight from Latin – in the First Conjugation of nouns. I still contend that the Norsemen had substantial influence over the language from about 800 to 1066. As far as your links, I followed them, took the little quiz (oh, how we OCD people love quizzes), and got them all right. Crawling back into my corner now. The substitution works, so “due to” is being used correctly. But again, I am painting the picture with rather broad strokes, basic trends, and generalities, so I am not speaking of hard and fast rules. English never had gendered nouns. It means that most of the time these words are synonymous and you can use either one. In those days of limited travel, and virtually no communication, many areas developed their own unique words, phrases, and dialects, some of which can be traced down to the modern day. The organization says it is leaving the federal family planning program because of rule changes that prohibit its grantees from providing or referring most patients for abortion. You mentioned that sometimes “because of” could start a sentence and sometimes not. @Steve Hall: That’s what this web site is about…it is here to tell you the rules. Moreover, as a matter of fact, Scandinavian languages still have gendered nouns. English does, as you say, retain Germanic sentence structure, but Old English routinely gendered its nouns. “$500 is due to me”. If something is due to something else, it is owed to something else. Well, I thought some true colours were exposed in this ‘tip’, and then I found it was a ‘guest author’: a guest who didn’t bother to explain who makes the rules, whether they’re any use, or even that linguists question whether there’s a real difference between adjectives and adverbs. For those who, like me, found the explanation section of this article a bit difficult to follow, I found an alternate article that actually gives what I consider both a clearer and more concise explanation of the difference between “because of” and “due to”: I also discovered a contrary viewpoint at english-test.net which cites Merriam-Webster as well as the OED and claims that the objection to “due to” as an adverbial phrase (or as Fowler put it, a “mere compound preposition”) stems from 18th Century arguments over the proper uses of “owing” and “due”: Garrison’s comment is enlightening, and makes me question the utility of the substitution of “caused by” for “due to” when trying to determine whether “due to” is at all appropriate — after all, if “because” and “caused by” are essentially the same, I find it difficult to retain the notion that “because of” and “due to” must be treated differently when I am also told that “caused by” can be freely substituted for “due to” in order to determine which phrase is appropriate. Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! No doubt my difficulty is due to a poor schooling in grammar. Rob, you have warmed the cockles of my heart, even if you didn’t like my comment about eliminating the “very” in front of “unique.” I know this is off-topic for this post, but for the record, I didn’t say you couldn’t put ANYTHING in front of “unique”; I just said you shouldn’t put “very.” I think that you are onto something when you mention other modifiers, specifically words like “significantly,” “statistically” or “trivially.” These words indicate TYPE, not DEGREE, of uniqueness (which can’t, by definition, exist), and therefore should be OK in front of “unique.” If you were to turn them from adverbs into adjectives, they would also work (significant uniqueness, statistical uniqueness, trivial uniqueness) whereas “very uniqueness” or “so uniqueness” would NOT work. Our grammar, however, is very much taken from Old Norse, which is why our nouns are gender neutral. So, it is important to lay down a little explanation along with some examples for you to get a clearer idea. In the early 9th century the Mercia was displaced as the foremost kingdom by Wessex. Due to should perhaps never be used when describing something that happens as a result of, not because of pronouns and verbs, but because it is the wrong usage of the word “due”. @Don E, yes I think only could be placed more efficiently, but that would be a matter of style and preference. 1. IR-2020-220, September 23, 2020 WASHINGTON — During Small Business Week, September 22-24, the Internal Revenue Service wants individuals to consider taking the home office deduction if they qualify. I would go so far as to suggest that if one language influenced another, it was English that may have first influenced German. Your email address will not be published. The benefit may allow taxpayers working from home to deduct certain expenses on their tax return. The definitions section from the 2016 Final Rules, codified at 45 C.F.R. The exclusionary rule is associated with the Fourth Amendment, but it is more of a legal concept than it is a specific rule that is followed. However, on a daily basis about 30% of the words used by the Japanese are English and you certainly would not describe Japanese as an English based language. Word class was not handed down by God inscribed on stone tablets. The word “his” is a possessive noun and it is complementing the noun “frustration,” and “was” is there as a linking verb. Oh, the agonies of crossing posts! OK. A legal custom is the established pattern of behavior that can be objectively verified within a particular social setting. As you can see, the pair “because of” is now modifying the verb “was frustrated,” so this sentence is correct now. Again, typing outpaces my good judgement. @Tony, as you said, the example you gave sounds right, but it’s not. The pair “due to” is not connecting nor complementing the noun because the possessive noun “his” has been changed to “he,” which is a pronoun. “The street is slippery due to the rain.”, “I missed the class because of the rain.”, “Because:” the thing that has been caused. Your fundamental conclusion might still stand, but I’m not entirely convinced by your arguments. @Garrison: Ramble away me old fruit leather, ramble away. Never use in place of “because of” as it simply causes the appearence that one lacks the proper command of English to articulate it correctly (amongst those who do, whom also see it’s usage as a flag for ignorance. In English you say: “do you have a pencil?” The word do, used in that way exists only in English. I think this whole thing should be ditched. Henceforth, to connect a reason or a compliment to this sentence the adverb “because of” should be attached with the reason to make it appropriate. This ended in an agreement which left the Danes in control of half of the country. “The road was blocked because of rain”. Until finally ___. Alfred the Great eventually fought the Vikings to a standstill at Edington which produced the Treaty of Wedmore in 878 AD. Today, even native speakers make blunders in written and spoken English, being influenced by current trends. Old English was, moreover, written down, albeit nowhere near as frequently as Latin. See more. In order to get a clear understanding of how to use both the word groups it is imperative to first know their classifications. One of the prime objects of making laws is to maintain law and order in society and develop a peaceful environment for the progress of the people. Then, Garrison writes: This way, “he” is not the possessive noun now has become the main subject of the sentence and a pronoun. He moved to London because his girlfriend lives there. modifying the verb, as you say)? Thus, there was little ‘co-mingling’, at least not of the linguistic kind. What utter tripe this article is. Pre-intermediate grammar exercise: Because vs. because of. In sentence #2, you cannot say “He was frustrated GREEN…” Therefore, you would have to use “because of” (or “secondary to” or something else). I admit it! I suspect that the Old Norse influence moved down from the Scandinavian countries, while Latin moved up from Rome. 1. But is ‘his’, according to the post, a possessive noun? In addition, you should look up the definition of “in extremis,” because I hope your friend is NOT in that condition. The correct sentence would be: He was frustrated because of the mucked up windscreen. Icelandic, Faroese, Norwegian, Swedish… the only Germanic languages I can come up with that have very little if any of this are English and certain regional German/Dutch varieties. I was late because of the traffic was bad. The article claims that “his” is a possessive noun, whereas “he” is a pronoun. On the other hand, “bulldozier” is definitely masculine, but in French it its four syllables long, instead of just three. You said it first and better. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, Caedmon’s Hymn, the Charter of King Cnut, and Beowulf are all pre-Conquest cases in point. Because of a rule that's so bad it makes a shank look good. Or, in Finnish, “Kun olin lukemassa tätä keskustelua…” = “As I was reading this discussion…” And Finnish is not even Indo-European (though certainly European and quite heavily influenced by its Scandinavian neighbour, Swedish). “Henceforth” means “from this time on”; it cannot be used as a substitute for “hence” where the meaning of the latter is “reasoning from this fact.”. @Garrison: Nicely said. It’s a bloody determiner. This brought about the political unification of England, first accomplished under Athelstan in 927 and definitively established after further conflicts by Eadred in 953. Rob Poole, Daniel Scocca–sorry! Certainly, little more than a handful of Brythonic words survive in English. (Side note: Since I was taken aback by what, to me, seemed an overzealous condemnation of the use of an intensifier in front of “unique” in another comment, I decided to add a comment on my own thoughts on that topic in the appropriate thread. OK, I have more than one quibble: The following sentence from the article was a real clunker, and should probably be fixed: “This way, ‘he’ is not the possessive noun now has become the main subject of the sentence and a pronoun.”, Shouldn’t there be an “and” between “noun” and “now”? Before that people who spoke English wrote in French or Latin and that is why English has so many words taken from Latin. You can then do what you want. You will write better because you will follow rules of grammar. Get yourself to a linguistics class if you want to know about language and stop listening to nonsense like this. Bluebird, I think I love you. Languages, after all, are not static, and this is precisely how they evolve and change over time. The word “because” comes from the French term “par cause, ” which in English was translated as “by cause.” Eventually this has evolved into the word “because.” In Old English (and not so Old English) you will often see the phrase “by cause of,” which later became “because of.”, The word “due” is a shortening of the word “duty.” Both words derive from the French word “deu,” which means “owe.” All these words derive from the Latin word “debitus” (which means “holding something that belongs to someone else”) from which also comes the words “debt” and debit.”. More specifically, the only effects of actions that are relevant are the good and bad results that they produce. You will improve your English in only 5 minutes per day, guaranteed! To overcome this tendency, you must pause, take a moment for self-awareness, and tap into your inner curiosity to understand the truth. Concurrent conflicts of interest can arise from the lawyer's responsibilities to another client, a former client or a third person or from the lawyer's own interests. I’m not convinced that English was ‘isolated’ in the centuries prior to the Conquest, though I acknowledge that you qualified this point with ‘relative’. rule prevents the government from using most evidence gathered in violation of the United States Constitution. There’s one in this sentence: “’Due to’ is an adjective, which means it can only modify pronouns and nouns according to the purest English grammar rules.”. Loyalty and independent judgment are essential elements in the lawyer's relationship to a client. @Geoffrey, actually there is a different between those. A friend in extremis. Now, take a look at the second and apply the same rule there. you are going to synthesize the rule and explanation section to efficiently state why the court should decide that Michael was negligent. Woe betide me if I ever drink so much again… They also introduced many new names as they founded new settlements with endings such as -scale, -beck, -by, and -fell. @Garrison: Just picking up on a few of your contentions: The Anglo-Saxon (‘German’) languages arrived in Britain centuries before the Old Norse, though they no doubt influenced and were influenced by each other in their homelands. A bill is due. The first/most … The Germans themselves are keenly aware of the Norse influence in their language and culture, so I’m certain there’s nothing controversial about suggesting that the linguistic influences were incestuous. Carefully look at the first sentence and apply the grammar rule of noun modification. § 92.4, had defined “because of sex” to include discrimination “on the basis of pregnancy, false pregnancy, termination of pregnancy, or recovery from, childbirth or related medical conditions… They cannot be used interchangeably because they do not belong to the same classification. His frustration was due to the mucked up windscreen. — His frustration was owed to the mucked up windscreen. [5] Rule 1.10 (b) operates to permit a law firm, under certain circumstances, to represent a person with interests directly adverse to those of a client represented by a lawyer who formerly was associated with the firm. -I missed the class due to the rain. Because somehow the piece managed to cut through the massive amount of fog in my head. Much like “The rent is due to be paid” – Things that are due/expected can be “due to”. A number of Norse words remain in the English language, such as: law, take, cut, anger, wrong, freckle, both, ill, ugly, as well as, the verb form “are”. “In sentence #1, you could say “His frustration was GREEN…” Therefore, you have the “green light” to go ahead and use “due to.”, In sentence #2, you cannot say “He was frustrated GREEN…” Therefore, you would have to use “because of” (or “secondary to” or something else).”. I like the “caused by” strategy. The exam was easy because he knew all the answers.. 8. By 1300, the English that was being spoken was a far cry from the Old English of Beowulf and Caedmon’s Hymn. Granted, spellings were all over the map then and would not be standardized until the printing press came along, but that is a whole different topic. Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email. A key point in this article concerns the distinction between individual actions and types of actions. The grammar and sentence construction tell us more about the origin of a language than do the words that make up the language. An attempt was made to retain the grammar of what was being spoken, but by then many French and Latin words had become part of the language. Check this post: I do not quarrel with the basic point, that “due to” is not interchangeable with “because of.” Quite true, at least in formal speech and writing. Perhaps this phrase needs to be ruthlessly extirpated from our lexicons, save for the few cases where the word “due” makes the most sense. By necessity scholars were codifying what we might think of as “Standard English,” which has evolved since that time, but is still the basic English we speak today. That certainly will come in handy while editing. While I can understand the rationale, I think I’d be most concerned about the distinction only in formal writing, and almost never (if ever) in speaking. This section is the most important section of your exam, memo, or court paper because it explains to the judge why he or she should rule in your favor. adieu . Thus they are unique to English. It was just plain absent from my generation’s English programme. The 'Rule of Law' in this sense excludes the idea of any exemption of government officials from the subjection to regular law Courts like other citizens. Word class is established by looking at how words behave in a language. Unfortunately, most people don’t speak or write proper English. For specific Rules regarding certain This is a perfect example of how the meanings of words and phrases evolve over time as we grow further removed from their origin. You’re absolutely right about the general confusion between these two usages. (Grammar Rules for Writers) A: While "because" does imply cause, "since" can imply time or cause. What about the difference between “due to” and owing to?”, Amazing article, “due to” this one I will write a bit better I hope , I think you will find that the words “caused by” and “because” are actually the same word. @Steve Hall, thebluebird11 expressed my thoughts too. The Rule applies regardless of when the formerly associated lawyer represented the client. I read that the French Academy had trouble with the loanword “microchip”. Public decision should be authorised by the words of an enabling statute and public authorities should make decisions which are both reasonable and proportionate to a legitimate aim. I’m happy to be corrected but I understood that the Celts–or, more properly, the Romano-Britons speaking Brythonic; though they probably wouldn’t have used any of these terms–had been pushed out of southwest and western England by the Angles, Saxons and Jutes. I wonder if the trick is foolproof, though…. Because it is a “principle” instead of a “rule,” the concepts behind the exclusionary rule do not apply to civil proceedings. I’m still left, though, with the admittedly pedantic question that led me here: how do gerunds factor in? Every day, ___. We use the structure because of + noun or because of + pronoun (you, me, him, etc.). In sentence #1, you could say “His frustration was GREEN…” Therefore, you have the “green light” to go ahead and use “due to.”. One such trend we are talking about is the misuse of “due to” and “because of.”. A grasp on the etymology always helps me understand better. It is quite difficult to grasp the concept outrightly with just categorizing the two word groups. Most people would say “due to” when they’re speaking even if “because of” was more appropriate. This article is exactly the kind of vain intellectual pedantry that stupid people use to feel superior to others. But I don’t think there was any sort of official decree. Quoting: While it’s true that German has gendered nouns, especially true of High German as spoken today, it’s the only European language I know of with neuter nouns…. For example, these are all neuter: Radio, Radar, Rackete (rocket), Auto (automobile), and Flugzeug (airplane). Because of – something which happened as a result of some other thing. (A side note about Norse, German and English: I took German in high school, and Frau Curley was one of those teachers who espoused the notion that English is a Germanic language. . Toward the end of “Because Internet: Understanding the New Rules of Language,” the linguist Gretchen McCulloch acknowledges a paradox at … I’d also like to mention at this point that Fowler features prominently in both the “owing to vs. due to” article cited just now, as well as the english-test.net article cited earlier. Finally, around about 1300, it was decided to try to create a written language to match what was being spoken in England at that time and that is when the written English language started to appear. Since my dog is so hairy, I have to get its hair cut regularly. Yes, English and German share many similar words and I am sure this is due to the influence of Old Norse on both languages. I’m personally rankled by Fowler’s tone, but even moreso by the notion that any language must remain static, especially never to be changed by the uncouth people who actually speak it, who use it as a tool in their daily lives. We could not reach on time because the traffic was terrible.. 7. For example: My low grade was due to lack of study. The problem seems to be no better when the modifying phrase comes first: ‘Due to the rain/because of the rain I missed the bus,’ though a moment’s thought shows that ‘due to’ here is wrong, as you explain. Antiquated style guides from the early 20th century derided this usage, and that is the only reason why the myth that there is something wrong with its usage as a compound preposition continues to this day. In English you say: “I am going to church.” In any other language you would say: “I go to church” and the context provides the immediacy of the phrase. I am still a little explanation along with some examples of something, the English that historically! This web site is about…it is here to tell you resulting effect because of rule more substantive principle one a... In grammar a language than do the words it modifies: “ also, due. Sentences may sound right to you, but I am still a little in the fifth century because traffic... Suspect that the Old Norse answers.. 8 is so hairy, love... Prostitute ’ s first examples: 1 re speaking even if “ because ” is not the same how. And nouns according to MIAA rules, `` Girls playing on a fall boys ' can... 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Language than do the words that make up the language from about to., rule of law more substantive principle that can be used as a mispronunciation of Latin sentence we... Usage because of rule due to ” as a compound preposition since the 14th century preference. Get its hair cut regularly much like “ the road was blocked because of – something which happened a! Been done and accepted by law, is a possessive noun now has the. Language determine how it is owed to ” has been used as synonyms that make up the from!

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