BECAUSE OF or THANKS TO How to Express the Cause Learn English Grammar

hi everybody my name is Alisha today I’m

going to talk about the difference
between because of and thanks to these

are two expressions we can use to talk
about the cause of a situation or the

cause of a state but let’s see maybe
some key differences between how to use

them okay let’s begin with the phrase
because of because of so when we use

because of we use because of before a
noun phrase where the noun phrase

expresses the cause of the situation or
the cause of an upcoming action for

example so a few examples of this could
be because of you or because of the

weather or because of the train delay in
each of these example sentences I have a

noun phrase following the expression
because of so these are introducing the

cause of the situation so the nuance of
because of is that this noun phrase made

something possible or caused something
to happen we use because of when we’re

explaining a negative situation often
time so something negative has happened

we can use this as I’ll mention here we
can use this to show appreciation to

show a positive outcome or to show our
gratitude for something but when we’re

talking about negative situations we
often use because of to express a

negative result a negative outcome when
we want to show our appreciation however

using because of we can say something
like because of you I was able to pass

my test so yes we can use this
expression to express negative to

express positive situations but we also
tend to use this one more to express

negative situations I’ll explain in just
a moment some other ways to express

negative causes we tend to use because
of when there’s not a specific person or

a specific entity involved in this
situation so for example I had to cancel

my picnic because of rain so here rain
is the cause for the

maybe this is a negative situation I had
to cancel my picnic and rain it’s just

an entity it’s not really a an
organization it’s not a person it’s just

something out there that caused a
situation to have them so in these cases

like for example a train delay or the
weather or some situation outside your

control you can use because of to
express that so we use because of before

a noun phrase to express the cause of a
situation or the reason for a state we

can use it to talk about positive
situations and negative situations but

if you want to express a negative
situation a negative state it’s

generally a better idea to use because
of then thanks to as I’ll show you in

just a moment okay so with that in mind
let’s look at thanks to the other point

for today thanks to just as we did with
because of we introduced a noun phrase

before the expression so thanks to plus
some noun phrase where the noun phrase

is the reason or is the cause of the
situation or this state so again thanks

to you thanks to my teacher thanks to my
parents here you my teacher my parents

these are the noun phrases these
introduce the reason or the cause of the

state or the situation so the nuance
with thanks to again is that the sonow

phrase has made something possible yes
but there’s a nuance of appreciation in

most cases the word Thanks here thank
like to express gratitude to express

appreciation is the route here so
there’s typically a nuance of

appreciation there’s gratitude we can
however use this sarcastically so

sarcastically means to use to create the
opposite meaning so we can use this

expression sarcastically to show anger
if we use thanks to plus a negative

situation for example thanks to you
we’re late for the movie this is a

sarcastic use of the expression thanks
to the speaker is actually unhappy here

the speaker uses the expression thanks
to you which is intending to show

appreciation however its
followed by this late for the movie

we’re late for the movie a negative
situation so this is what’s called

sarcasm creating the opposite meaning of
the words that are actually used in the

expression so we can use thanks too to
show our anger in a situation we

typically use thanks to when there’s a
person or an entity to show our

appreciation to so in these cases I’ve
used you my teacher and my parents these

are people you could use an organization
a school maybe a community center for

example so something some organization
some person some entity that you can

show your appreciation to we can use
thanks to in that case you might also

hear the expression no thanks to to show
someone who impeded something so to

impede means to get in the way of or
maybe to make it difficult to do

something else so in an example sentence
I finally got a new job no thanks to my

old boss so again after no thanks to we
have a noun phrase in this case my old

boss so no thanks to shows no
appreciation for something however

there’s still a result there’s still an
outcome I finally got a new job but no

thanks to my old boss so I did it
without the help of my old boss or

perhaps my old boss tried to make it
difficult for me to do something to get

a new job so you might hear no thanks to
which shows no appreciation for that

person or that entity so please be
careful if you want to show your

appreciation you should use thanks too
and of course Express a positive outcome

here so thanks to is better when you’re
talking about people and entities and

there’s a positive situation you can use
thanks to to express sarcasm to to

create sarcasm and express anger if
however you just want to be very clear

all the time you can use because of to
express negative situations without

creating sarcasm so a simple negative
situation like my picnic was cancelled

because of rain that’s much much better
with because of it sounds much more

straight forward and there’s no sarcasm
in that case so you can use because of

for positive situations and negative
situations but if you want to express

something related to a person or to an
entity try using thanks to instead it’ll

sound a little more appreciative
otherwise you can stick to because of

alright so those are a few key
differences between the phrases because

of and thanks to I hope that was useful
for you if you have any questions please