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Infinity Posted 21 years ago
Grammar

The reason is because ～

0 ‘The reason is because ~ ‘ is said to be ungrammatical. One of the reasons is that the verb there is a link-verb which links a verb and a complement, and in this case the complement should be a noun-clause preceded by ‘that’. However, the construction is widely accepted unless you are writing formal documents. Does this apply to ‘it is because ~ ‘ or ‘this is because ~’ or ‘that is because ~’? 0-
  

Top answer

0 01blockquote 00'The reason is because ~' is said to be ungrammatical. One of the reasons is that the verb there is a link-verb which links a verb and a complement, and in this case the complement should be a noun-clause preceded by 'that'. 12blockquote 12br 00You are quite right.

— Paco2004

  • 0 01blockquote 00'The reason is because ~' is said to be ungrammatical.
  • One of the reasons is that the verb there is a link-verb which links a verb and a complement, and in this case the complement should be a noun-clause preceded by 'that'.
  • 12blockquote 12br 00You are quite right.
  • I think 'the reason is because ~' is not so a bad construction, though OED gives no quote for the usage of this construct.
  • 12blockquote 12br 00I think they are acceptable even in formal English.
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30 Answers
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0 01blockquote
00'The reason is because ~' is said to be ungrammatical. One of the reasons is that the verb there is a link-verb which links a verb and a complement, and in this case the complement should be a noun-clause preceded by 'that'. However, the construction is widely accepted unless you are writing formal documents.12blockquote
12br
00You
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0 Thanks, paco. 02br
00I've been using 'that is because' without thinking about any of its grammatical aspects. My question is, how you parse it. For instance, 02br
00"That is because I don't know her." 02br
00Here, 'because I don't know her' is an adverbial, right? So it doesn't explain or add additional information to the subject 'this', rather modifyin
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0 The objection only applies when the specific word "reason" (a near synonym for "cause") is used with "because". It is not the verb "is" (or any form of "to be") which is the problem here. 02br
02br
00Continuing with the idea that "reason" often means "cause" and that "because" means "from the cause that", we see that "the reason is because" means "the cause is from the cau
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0 Thank you CJ for your help. 02br
02br
00I think what Infinity wants to know is a bit away from your answer. He takes "because ..." as an adverbial clause, and "it/that/this" as pronouns indicating something like an event (a noun). Then "That is because ..." is parsed as "NP is Adv". It sounds somehow odd to me too, though I think this construct is similar to "The book is o
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0Yes. I see. Well, maybe we ought to start a new thread on the uses of "to be", especially in the non-equative senses. 050010id1
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0 Thanks, paco and CJ. 02br
00In addition, 02br
00The problem is where you are from. 02br
00The point is how you do it. 02br
00Do these share the same mechanism with 'that is because I don't know her'? 0-
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0 Hello Infinity. 02br
02br
00The problem is where you are from. 02br
00The point is how you do it. 02br
02br
00The "where"-clause and "how"-clause here are noun clauses meaning a place and a manner respectively. So they belong to constructs of "NP is NP". 02br
02br
00"Because"- clauses can't be taken to be a noun clause,
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0 I had been told that many times we should use "the reason is that" but not "the reason is because" when I was in high school. 02br
00I guess "paco2004" probably speak Chinese.In Chinese,we have this structure.I guess "the reason is because" is only the word by word translation from Chinese to English. 02br
00But CaliJim ,I did see some English speakers say something l
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0 I did see some English speakers say something like "the reason is because" in one forum which I didn't recall the website.What I want to ask is that Can we use "the reason is because " in a informal occasion or it is totally wrong. If it wrong,why some people use it ? I am totally confused. 02br
02br
00^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ 02br
02br
00Of course you can use,
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0 yes, I was also told that "the reason is because..." is wrong in my high school, while "the reason is that..." is correct. 02br
00"that" here is introducing a predicative clause. 02br
00the reason is something, something happens because... 02br
00So, some advice from some native speakers shall be better 0-
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