Due to or because

Question

Hello there!Recently I have encounted a strange to my foreign mind phrase said by a native speaker : " Due to trainer away on vacation, the classes were cancelled". Could you please tell me if it's correct to say so?Thank you very much in advance!

Clive · Accepted Answer

Hi,

Recently I have encountered a strange to my foreign mind phrase said by a native speaker : " Due to trainer away on vacation, the classes were cancelled". Could you please tell me if it's correct to say so?

No, Say Due to the trainer's being away on vacation, the classes were cancelled.

Clive

Anonymous · Answer

Thank you very much, Clive!!!

I just thought that "due to" can't introduce a clause, and "because of" should be used instead...

BarbaraPA · Answer

In my observation, very few native speakers know or understand the rules that make "because" and "due to" work in different ways. The more native speakers ignore (or are ignorant of) a rule, the less of a rule it becomes. I sometimes bother to look it up (because I can never remember how it is supposed to work), but don't often, because I use "because" and not "due to" in my writing.

In any case, I've known Clive long enough to know that he usually tries to stay as close to the original words as possible, making only what changes are needed to make it understandable, unambiguous, and grammatical.

I'm all about brevity in those types of communications. I also think the more important point is that classes were canceled, not why. My version would be "The classes were canceled because the teacher was on vacation."

Clive · Answer

Hi,

eg
Due to the trainer's being away on vacation . . .
Due to the fact that the trainer was away on vacation . . .
Because of the trainer's being away on vacation . . .

Because the trainer was away on vacation . . .

Clive

Due to or because

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