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
let us know in the comment section below
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