grammar - Can “due to” and “because of ” be used interchangeably?


Is it fine to use due to in place of because of ? How about the other way around? Are any of these sentences ungrammatical?




  • He was lost because of the storm.




  • He was lost due to the storm.




  • He lost his way due to the storm.




  • He lost his way because of the storm.





Answer



(EDIT: This is a traditional set of rules for "due to" and "because of", but there is disagreement over whether these rules apply to modern English. See further discussion below.)


They are not interchangeable.



He was lost because of the storm. (correct)


*He was lost due to the storm. (incorrect)


*He lost his way due to the storm. (incorrect)


He lost his way because of the storm. (correct)



These examples highlight the difference between "due to" and "because of":



He failed because of bad planning.


His failure was due to bad planning.



In short, "because of" modifies a verb, but "due to" modifies a noun (or pronoun). In common usage, though, you will often hear/see them being used interchangeably. More detail can be found in this article.


EDIT: See also this article, which mentions that



  • "due to" is generally interchangeable with "caused by"

  • "because of" is generally interchangeable with "on account of"


EDIT: Grammar Girl discusses "due to" in an article with references to Strunk & White, Fowler's Modern English Usage, and The American Heritage Guide to Contemporary Usage and Style, and my paraphrase of her conclusion is that traditional restrictions on "due to" are being increasingly abandoned by modern style guides and may eventually be abolished altogether.


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