Due to/Owing to

Question

Hai all,Is there any significant difference between the following statements?1. We should take the alternative route due to bad road condition.2. We should take the alternative route owing to bad road condition.Thanks,SRI

Mister Micawber · Accepted Answer

There is no difference in intended meaning, but please see Due to.

Hi should be spelled so.

S_s_sridhar · Answer

Thanks Mr. MM

Anonymous · Answer

0There actually is a difference between owing to and due to:02br
02br
00Owing to is adverbial02br
01i00Example02i00: "The match was 01u00postponed02u00 01u00owing to02u00 the rain."02br
02br
00As 'Owing to' is adverbial, it refers to the verb 'postponed'. If you used the adjectival 'due to' it would have to refer to a noun, in this case the match - but the match was not due to the rain!02br
02br
00Due to is adjectival02br
01i00Example02i00: "There was an 01u00increase02u00 in the man's temper 01u00due to02u00 the poor English."02br
02br
00There is a noun 'increase' so that 'due to' can be properly used (it is adjectival, always referring back to a noun).0-

MrPedantic · Answer

0Merriam-Webster and Oxford both describe "owing to" as a preposition, Anon. It consists of the adjective "owing" + the preposition "to". It means "because of".02br
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00(We can say the same of "due to".)02br
02br
00MrP0-

Goodman · Answer

0 01blockquote

01cite10S_s_sridhar12cite10Hai all,12br
12br
10Is there any significant difference between the following statements?12br
12br
101. We should take the alternative route 11u10due to12u10 bad road condition.12br
12br
102. We should take the alternative route 11u10owing to12u10 bad road condition.12br
12br
10Thanks,12br
12br
10SRI12br
12br
12blockquote

10I don't know what it is but somehow both sounded odd to me. Perhaps, "due to" and "owing" have an implied tone of the past. 02br
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00I would say: 1) We took the alternate route due to bad road condition.02br
02br
00 2) Owing to the bad weather, we had to take the alternate route.0-

Anonymous · Answer

0Perhaps it is the singular 01i00condition02i00 that is odd. I would have advised 01i00bad road condition01b00s02b02i00 if I hadn't been distracted by the original underescoring.02br
02br
01i00('S me. -- MM)02i0-

Anonymous · Answer

0 Definitely "owing to" 0-

Anonymous · Answer

Due to means "caused by"
Owing to means "because of"

Cool Breeze · Answer

My take:
The match was cancelled due to / owing to / because of / on account of rain.

All correct, no difference in meaning. This is what Random House Webster's says about due to:
—Usage.7. DUE TO as a prepositional phrase meaning “because of, owing to” has been in use since the 14th century: Due to the sudden rainstorm, the picnic was moved indoors. Some object to this use on the grounds that DUE is historically an adjective and thus should be used only predicatively in constructions like The delay was due to electrical failure. Despite such objections, DUE TO occurs commonly as a compound preposition and is standard in all varieties of speech and writing.
CB

Anonymous · Answer

AnonymousExample: "There was an increase in the man's temper due to the poor English."

There is a noun 'increase' so that 'due to' can be properly used (it is adjectival, always referring back to a noun).

That's incorrect. "Due to" answers what, not why. The only way the phrase could be used properly in that sentence is if it came after a form of "to be":

"The increase in the man's temper was due to the poor English."

Your proposed sentence suggests that the man's temper itself was caused by the poor English, which is nonsensical. His temper flared up because of the poor English.

If your statement can answer "why," use "because of."

Why did the man's temper increase? Because of the poor English.

"Due to" answers what; "because of" answers why.

Due to/Owing to

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