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Source: — Sentence Correction |
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by AIM GMAT » Fri Apr 15, 2011 8:57 am
ankur.agrawal wrote:"The fire was due to drought" is correct, but "There was a fire due to drought" is not.

Instead "There was a fire because of drought" .

Can somebody explain this to me?
A concept to share :-

"Due to" means "caused by".

"Due to" does not mean the same thing as "because of". "Due to" should only be used if it can be substituted by "caused by".
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by pemdas » Fri Apr 15, 2011 3:08 pm
These two - "due to" and "because of" - have grown up differently

"due to" is an adjective

"because of" is an adverb (adverbial phrase) which answers on question(s) starting with HOW? Adverb (adverbial phrase) supplements the meaning of sentence.

"There was a fire due to drought" - The fire was HOW? or HOW was the fire? incorrect

Adjective logically completes the sentence. If an adjective is missing, the sentence with "due to" is incomplete - "The fire was ... ??? ..." compare with "There was a fire ___ due to drought" due to drought is an adverb modifying clause and must be replaced with "because of" - "There was a fire because of drought"

ankur.agrawal wrote:"The fire was due to drought" is correct, but "There was a fire due to drought" is not.

Instead "There was a fire because of drought" .

Can somebody explain this to me?
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