Re: Due To: the real story

[Stephen Victor <svictor -at- LGC -dot- COM>]

> Just my nit-picky self... the common use of "due to" is bastardized English,
> and will probably never go away (and, I admit, probably shouldn't).

> ** Probably won't, but should. If I'd been your Grade 10 teacher I would have
>    given a very different explanation.

>    "Due" is an adjective.  Your paper is due.  Your rent is due.  Your
>    lateness was due to traffic.  Our failure was due to circumstances
>    beyond our control.  Properly used, "due" modifies a noun, like any
>    other adjective.

>    It's wrong to say "I was late due to traffic."  In such a construction,
>    the adjective "due" is not modifying anything.  "Because of" is what
>    you want in a sentence like that.

> __________________________________________________________________________
> ||- Mark L. Levinson, mark -at- sd -dot- co -dot- il -- Box 5780, 46157 Herzlia, Israel -||
> ||     You can't judge right by looking at the wrong. - Willie Dixon    ||


Here's what Strunk and White have to say:

"Due to. Loosely used for through, because of, or owing to in adverbial phrases.

He lost the first game due to carelessness.
He lost the first game because of carelessness.

In correct use synonymous with attributable to: 'The accident was due to bad
 weather'; 'losses due to preventable fires.'"

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Stephen P. Victor                                               svictor -at- lgc -dot- com
Landmark Graphics Corporation                http://www.cda.ulpgc.es/steve.html
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