Because: meaning and use
Becauseintroduces clauses of cause and reason. It is a subordinating conjunction. This means that the clause it introduces is a subordinate clause, which needs a main clauseto make it complete. We use a comma when the subordinate clause comes before the main clause:
[main clause]Everyone left earlybecause[subordinate clause]Mark and Helen had an argument.
[subordinate clause]Becausethey were so tired,[main clause]they went to bed at 9 pm.
We don’t usefororwhyinstead ofbecausewhen we are giving reasons:
I’m going to go to the company’s head office on Mondaybecausethere is an emergency meeting there.
Not: …to the company’s head office on Monday for/why there is an emergency…
See also:
As,becauseorsince?
Because of
Because ofis a two-word preposition meaning ‘as a result of’:
Because ofthe rain, the tennis match was stopped.
There were so many people in the shopbecause ofthe sale.
Cos
Cos, a shortform ofbecause, is pronounced/kəz/or/kɒz/andcan also be spelt’cause. It can be used instead ofbecause(andcos ofinstead ofbecause of). We often use it in speaking, emails and text messages, especially in informal situations:
A:Why are you and Adam not talking to each other?
B:Coshe’s always saying nasty things about me.
I don’t eat meatcosI love animals.
They cancelled the tripcosofthe snow.
Just because,simply because
We canemphasisebecausewithjustorsimply:
Just becauseyou’re the boss, it doesn’t mean you can be rude to everyone.
I don’t want to do itsimply becauseI think it’s wrong.