As,becauseandsinceare conjunctions.As,becauseandsinceall introduce subordinate clauses.They connect the result of something with its reason.
result | reason |
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(Bilardo was the coach of the Argentinian football team) |
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Because
Becauseis more common thanasandsince, both in writing and speaking. When we usebecause, we are focusing on the reason:
She spoke quietlybecauseshe didn’t want Catherine to hear.
We’ll come over on SundaybecauseDavid’s got to work on Saturday.
We often put thebecause-clause at the beginning of a sentence, especially when we want to give extra focus to the reason. We use a comma after thebecause-clause:
Becausebreathing is something we do automatically, we rarely think about it.
We can use abecause-clause on its own without the main clausein speaking or informal writing:
A:Would you like to go to school there?
B:Yes.
A:Why?
B:Becausemy best friend goes there. (I would like to go to school there because my best friend goes there.)
We don’t use abecause-clause on its own in formal writing:
In 1998, the government introduced a new import taxbecausepeople were importing cars from abroad.
Not: …a new import tax. Because people were importing cars from abroad.
Cos
We often shortenbecausetocos/kəz/or/kɒz/in informal speaking and writing:
I’m laughingcosI’m so happy.
See also:
Because,because ofandcos,cos of
Asandsince
We often useasandsincewhen we want to focus more on the result than the reason.Asandsinceare more formal thanbecause. We usually put a comma beforesinceafter the main clause:
[result]I hope they’ve decided to comeas[reason]I wanted to hear about their India trip.
[result]They’re rather expensive,since[reason]they’re quite hard to find.
We often useasandsinceclauses at the beginning of the sentence. We use a comma after theas-orsince-clause:
Sinceeverything can be done from home with computers and telephones, there’s no need to dress up for work any more.
Aseveryone already knows each other, there’s no need for introductions. We’ll get straight into the business of the meeting.
We usebecause, notasorsince, in questions where the speaker proposes a reason:
Are you feeling unwellbecauseyou ate too much?
Not:Are you feeling unwell since you ate too much?or …as you ate too much?
See also:
Conjunctions