Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Because, Because of and Cos, Cos of
Because, Because of and Cos, Cos of
[main clause]Everyone left early because [subordinate clause]Mark and Helen had an
argument.
[subordinate clause]Because they were so tired, [main clause]they went to bed at 9 pm.
Warning:
We don’t use for or why instead of because when we are giving reasons:
I’m going to go to the company’s head office on Monday because there is an emergency
meeting there.
See also:
Because of
Because of is a two-word preposition meaning ‘as a result of’:
Cos
Cos, a short form of because, is pronounced /kəz/ or /kɒz/ and can also be spelt ’cause.
It can be used instead of because (and cos of instead of because of). We often use it in
speaking, emails and text messages, especially in informal situations:
A:
B:
Just because you’re the boss, it doesn’t mean you can be rude to everyone.
The saying “too many cooks spoil the broth” is spot on in the case of English language.
Today, even native speakers make blunders in written and spoken English, being
influenced by current trends. One such trend we are talking about is the misuse of “due
to” and “because of.”
Many are of the opinion that both of the pairs refer to the same thing, and that they can
be used as synonyms. This is an absolute misconception. They cannot be used
interchangeably because they do not belong to the same classification. When the
classification is not the same, how can the usage be?
Some native English speakers also claim that a sentence cannot be started with the pair
“because of.” However, they are unable to demonstrate the reasons. In some cases, the
sentence cannot be started with “because of” whereas in some cases it can.
This is the sole purpose of this post. We will be discussing the legitimate reasons, usage
and rules associated with both the word pairs.
“Because of” is an adverb, which means it can only modify verbs, adjectives and
clauses, but not nouns and pronouns.
The Explanation
It is quite difficult to grasp the concept outrightly with just categorizing the two word
groups. So, it is important to lay down a little explanation along with some examples for
you to get a clearer idea. Here are some examples of the usage of both the word groups:
In general, both of the sentences may sound right to you, but they are not. Carefully
look at the first sentence and apply the grammar rule of noun modification. The word
“his” is a possessive noun and it is complementing the noun “frustration,” and “was” is
there as a linking verb. Now, “due to the mucked up windscreen” itself is an adjectival
prepositional phrase which is the complement or the reason being attached to the noun
with the help of the linking verb “was.” Therefore, in this case the usage of “due to” is
absolutely right because it is fulfilling the purpose of modifying the noun.
Now, take a look at the second and apply the same rule there. The pair “due to” is not
connecting nor complementing the noun because the possessive noun “his” has been
changed to “he,” which is a pronoun. This way, “he” is not the possessive noun now has
become the main subject of the sentence and a pronoun.
The pair “due to” has nothing to modify here because the verb is now “was frustrated”
and adjectives cannot modify verbs. Henceforth, to connect a reason or a compliment to
this sentence the adverb “because of” should be attached with the reason to make it
appropriate. The correct sentence would be:
As you can see, the pair “because of” is now modifying the verb “was frustrated,” so
this sentence is correct now.
The substitution works, so “due to” is being used correctly. Here is another example:
I missed the class due to the rain.
I missed the class caused by the rain.
The substitution doesn’t work here, so “due to” shouldn’t be used there. The correct
sentence would be:
Although or though?
de English Grammar Today
[main clause]Everyone enjoyed the trip to the final although [subordinate clause]we
lost the match!
[subordinate clause]Though it was rainy, [main clause]we put on our jackets and went
for a walk.
Spoken English:
Though is more common than although in general and it is much more common than
although in speaking. For emphasis, we often use even with though (but not with
although).
Warning:
When the though/although clause comes before the main clause, we usually put a
comma at the end of the clause. When the main clause comes first, we don’t need to use
a comma:
Even though I earn a lot of money every month, I never seem to have any to spare!
See also:
Even if
In formal situations, we can use although and though to introduce an -ing clause:
[a teacher talking about a student]
Peter, although working harder this term, still needs to put more work into
mathematics.
The patient, though getting stronger, is still not well enough to come off his medication.
In formal speaking or writing, we can use although, though and even though to
introduce a clause without a verb (a reduced clause):
Raymond, although very interested, didn’t show any emotion when she invited him to
go for a walk.
[referring to a car]
Though more expensive, the new model is safer and more efficient.
Karen is coming to stay next week although I’m not sure what day she is coming.
Especially in speaking, we can use though (but not although or even though) with a
meaning similar to however or nevertheless. In these cases, we usually put it at the end
of a clause:
A:
B:
I don’t mind, though. I have lots of work to do. I’ll just bring my laptop with me.
A:
It’s expensive.
B:
A:
As though
As though has a meaning very similar to as if. As if is much more common than as
though:
In spite of, despite and although are all used to show a contrast but there are
differences in the structures used with them.
In spite of / despite
Remember that the gerund (‘-ing’ form) is the ‘noun’ form of a verb.
Despite of the bad weather, there was a large crowd at the match.
Although
We can use in spite of and despite with a subject and verb if we include the expression
‘the fact that’.
In spite of the fact that he worked very hard, he didn’t manage to pass the exam.
Despite the fact that he worked very hard, he didn’t manage to pass the exam.
Even though
We decided to buy the house even though we didn’t really have enough money.
You keep making that stupid noise even though I’ve asked you to stop three times.
Although
Although is a conjunction. It is used for introducing a statement that makes your main
statement seem surprising.
Although Jane was the most deserving candidate, she didn’t get the job.
Although she is rich and famous, she is not happy.
The soldiers fought bravely, and although they were badly wounded, they
refused to surrender.
Though she was poor she would never ask for help.
The soldiers went on fighting even though they were badly injured.
Notes
Though, although and even though are subordinating conjunctions. They introduce a
dependent clause that needs to be attached to an independent clause.
She was poor but she would never ask for help.
The same ideas can also be expressed using the transitional adverbs however,
nevertheless and nonetheless.
Jane was the most deserving candidate; however, she didn’t get the job.
Note the punctuation. Transitional adverbs do not connect two clauses; they merely
facilitate the flow of ideas.
Published: 01:23 BST, 19 April 2018 | Updated: 17:23 BST, 19 April 2018
e-mail
1.5k shares
405
View comments
+8
Pediatrician Hans Asperger (pictured), after whom the condition of Asperger Syndrome
was named, actively cooperated with the Nazi regime, a new study has found
The doctor who gave his name to Asperger syndrome sent helpless disabled children to
their deaths in a vile euthanasia clinic, a study shows.
Dr Hans Asperger, an Austrian psychiatrist, was first to chronicle the condition, a form
of high-functioning autism in 1944.
He wrote detailed case notes about child patients suffering from what he called 'autistic
psychopathy' while working in Vienna under Nazi rule.
The research overturns decades of claims that the child psychiatrist was an 'Oskar
Schindler' figure who saved children from being killed or used in horrific medical
experiments.
Now patient groups said the research triggers the question whether is still acceptable to
continue to call the condition - after the discredited doctor.
The clinic served the Nazi goal of eugenically engineering a genetically 'pure' society
through 'racial hygiene' and the elimination of lives deemed a burden.
RELATED ARTICLES
Previous
1
Next
1.5k shares
+8
Doomed: Herta Schreiber, three, (pictured) died in hospital - Asperger said the 'child
must be an unbearable burden to the mother'
In Am Spiegelgrund, some 789 children were either given lethal injections or left to
starve to death - and their deaths recorded as 'pneumonia', researchers claim.
+8
Herwig Czech said: 'These findings about Hans Asperger are the result of many years of
careful research in the archives.
'What emerges is that Asperger successfully sought to accommodate himself to the Nazi
regime and was rewarded with career opportunities in return.'
Dr Czech said it was unlikely Asperger was unaware patients were being put to death in
the 'overcrowded' clinic.
+8
In 1944, Asperger published his definition of the condition as people who exhibited 'a
lack of empathy, little ability to form friendships, one-sided conversation, intense
absorption in a special interest, and clumsy movements'
The claims had reached the UK by 1941, when Royal Air Force dropped leaflets in
Vienna stating that Dr Erwin Jekelius, director of the Steinhof hospital and Am
Spiegelgrund was responsible for 'the systematic murder of patients'.
Dr Czech, cites the case of three-year-old Herta Schreiber as being sent to her death.
Herta was diagnosed as suffering 'severe personality disorder', 'idiocy' and 'seizures'.
Asperger said 'the child must be an unbearable burden to the mother, who has to care for
five healthy children' and recommended 'permanent placement at Spiegelgrund'.
Dr Czech said it may be that 'permanent placement' was a 'euphemism for murder'.
The girl's mother also appeared to be aware of her daughter's likely fate, with a note
saying: 'If she cannot be helped, it would be better if she died..'
Dr Czech said that pneumonia was typically induced at the clinic by administering
barbiturates.
WHO WAS HANS ASPERGER AND WHAT IS HIS LEGACY?
Hans Asperger was born in Austria in 1906 and lived through both World Wars.
After graduating with his medical degree in 1931 he went on to become director of the
special education section at the university children's clinic in Vienna in 1932.
As an adult male in 1939 when the Second World War broke out, he was a medical
officer and opened a school for children.
After this was bombed and destroyed, a lot of his research was lost.
He defined a condition which would later adopt his name in four young boys.
The pattern included 'a lack of empathy, little ability to form friendships, one-sided
conversation, intense absorption in a special interest, and clumsy movements.'
Asperger called children with this condition 'little professors,' because of their ability to
talk about their favourite subject in great detail.
One of the boys, named Fritz V, became an astronomer who solved an error in Isaac
Newton's original work.
During his lifetime, he received little recognition for his work and only won a handful
or accolades in his local area.
After his death in 1980, his work was translated from his native German and the term
'Asperger's syndrome' was first coined.
The documents suggest that Professor Asperger ingratiated himself with the Nazi
regime to the extent of participating in its murderous euthanasia programme.
An estimated 789 children, many with severe mental problems, were systematically
killed at the Vienna clinic, mostly by lethal injection and gassing.
Others died from disease and starvation, or were subjected to harsh medical
experiments.
+8
Asperger was a medical officer in the Second World War and opened a school for
children. After this was bombed and destroyed, a lot of his research was also destroyed
+8
+8
Research suggests that Asperger co-operated actively with the Nazi Regime that
occupied his native Austria up to 1945.
The deaths of the children formed part of 'Aktion T4', a horrific euthanasia programme
personally authorised by Adolf Hitler, which set out to cull the incurable and severely
disabled.
Professor Baron Cohen said: 'We are aware that the article and its publication will be
controversial.
'Aktion T4' is the name given to the horrific euthanasia programme personally
authorised by Adolf Hitler who set out to cull the incurable and severely disabled.
Authorised by the Third Reich himself in late 1939, after the war broke out, certain
physicians were authorised to send the 'incurable' patients to certain sites.
At these sites the victims were 'involuntarily euthanised', mainly through lethal injection
and gassing.
One clinic in Vienna, near the childhood home of Hitler, was called Am Spiegelgrund.
The brains of up to 800 victims were preserved in jars and housed in the hospital for
decades.
+8
Asperger is said to have referred disabled children to the Am Spiegelgrund clinic, where
their 'unworthy' lives were cruely ended. An estimated 789 children, many with severe
mental problems, were systematically killed at the Vienna clinic, by lethal injection or
gassing
'We believe that it deserves to be published in order to expose the truth about how a
medical doctor who, for a long time, was seen as only having made valuable
contributions to the field of pediatrics and child psychiatry, was guilty of actively
assisting the Nazis in their abhorrent eugenics and euthanasia policies.
Professor Buxbaum said: 'We are persuaded by Herwig Czech's article that Asperger
was not just doing his best to survive in intolerable conditions, but was complicit with
his Nazi superiors in targeting society's most vulnerable people'.
Now patient groups are considering whether the condition should be renamed.
Carol Povey, Director at the Centre of Autism for the National Autistic Society,
said:'Autism affects everyone differently and people often have their own way of
talking about autism.
'We will be listening closely to the response to this news so we can continue to make
sure the language we use to describe autism reflects the preferences of autistic people
and their families.'
'Obviously no-one with a diagnosis of Asperger syndrome should feel in any way
tainted by this very troubling history.'
Asperger’s involvement with the Nazis is also outlined in newly published book by
Edith Sheffer, ‘Asperger's Children: The Origins of Autism in Nazi Vienna.'
News
According to medical historian Herwig Czech, Asperger directly referred two disabled
girls to the notorious Am Spiegelgrund children's clinic in Vienna, where some 800
children were murdered under the Nazi's euthanasia program.
Asperger also belonged to a medical commission that screened some 200 children at a
home for the mentally disabled. Of those, 35 were sent to the Am Spiegelgrund clinic
and killed.
"Asperger managed to accommodate himself to the Nazi regime and was rewarded for
his affirmations of loyalty with career opportunities," Czech wrote in his paper.
Read more: Sub-set savants: They can have autism and super brains, but we know little
about them
Debunking myths
The new findings debunk previous myths that Asperger was an outspoken critic of
National Socialism. Asperger had called for integrating difficult children into society,
leading historians to believe that he had sought to protect children from the Nazi
regime's euthanasia program.
However, Czech pointed out that Asperger did not advocate protecting disabled children
who were deemed incurable.
What is autism?
"This study is about someone who has been celebrated almost like a resistance fighter,
and who does not stand up to this image, according to historical sources," he said.
When Hitler's Germany annexed Austria in 1938, Vienna's medical faculties was purged
of several of its doctors and replaced with Nazi ideologues.
Czech's research reported that Asperger constantly tried to prove his loyalty to the Nazi
regime. This included openly declaring his allegiance to elements of Nazi medicine
including "race hygiene," a policy that only allowed certain groups of individuals to
procreate. Asperger also signed off on his reports with "Heil Hitler."
But, he continued, "we believe that it deserves to be published in order to expose the
truth about how a medical doctor who, for a long time, was seen as only having made
valuable contributions to the field of pediatrics and child psychiatry, was guilty of
actively assisting the Nazis in their abhorrent eugenics and euthanasia policies."
Asperger was best known for defining the range of autism disorders. The term
Asperger's syndrome was coined decades later, following his death in 1980, and
attributed to those suffering from highly functional autism and without developmental
delays.