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Anonymous Posted 16 years ago
Grammar

"Because of no war or conflict"

Because of no war or conflict, they don’t need to build a strong army or buy a lot of weapons. What is wrong with the first part of this sentence, 'because of no war'. I'm an English teacher helping correct a student mistake, and know that its wrong, but not sure how to explain it. Thanks!

I'm thinking the student should use a phrase like 'Because they are not at war or in a conflict' or something similar.
  

Top answer

There's a double negation in the sentence: no + not: Anonymous Because of no war or conflict, they do n’t need to build a strong army or buy a lot of weapons. If you don't want to get rid of because of, you can drop no and put the phrase at the end: They don't need to build a strong army or [to] buy a lot of weapons because of a war or a conflict. I don't know how idiomatic and/or natural that sounds to native ears, but it's certainly grammatical.

— Cool Breeze

  • There's a double negation in the sentence: no + not: Anonymous Because of no war or conflict, they do n’t need to build a strong army or buy a lot of weapons.
  • If you don't want to get rid of because of, you can drop no and put the phrase at the end: They don't need to build a strong army or [to] buy a lot of weapons because of a war or a conflict.
  • I don't know how idiomatic and/or natural that sounds to native ears, but it's certainly grammatical.
  • CB
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1 Answers
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There's a double negation in the sentence: no + not:
AnonymousBecause of no war or conflict, they don’t need to build a strong army or buy a lot of weapons.

If you don't want to get rid of because of, you can drop no and put the phrase at t
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