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>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.
Or as my tenth grade teacher put it, "due to" introduces an adjectival
phrase, not an adverbial phrase. In "xxx, we couldn't come," xxx is an
adverbial phrase.
I think adverbial "due to" phrases got popular in the 1960s because of the
widespread use of the form "Due to circumstances beyond our control, ..." In
fact, I have a book with that title by Fred Friendly. ...RM
Dr. Richard Mateosian Freelance Technical Writer srm -at- c2 -dot- org
Review Editor, IEEE Micro Vice President, STC Berkeley Chapter
