Due To: the real story

Subject: Due To: the real story
From: Mark Levinson <mark -at- SD -dot- CO -dot- IL>
Date: Thu, 25 May 1995 10:20:43 IDT

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 ||


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