Due to/on account of/owing to

[Barman]

Please consider the following sentences:

1) I couldn't come due to illness.

2) I couldn't come on account of illness.

3) I couldn't come owing to illness.

Of the above-mentioned sentences, which one is correct and why?

 

[GoesStation]

All three are correct. Why? Well, that's hard to answer.

 

[emsr2d2]

They are all possible but it would be more natural for most native speakers to say "I couldn't come because I was ill" (BrE) or "I couldn't come because I was sick" (AmE).

 

[Barman]

'Due to illness, I couldn't come'.

Please advise me if the above-mentioned sentence is correct or not.

 

[tedmc]

'Due to illness, I couldn't come'.

Please advise me if the above-mentioned sentence is correct or not.

This is just rearranging sentence 1 in post #1. It is the same.

For some reason, you prefer not to write "I" twice in the sentence, like the native speakers do, which they consider more natural.

 

[Barman]

This is just rearranging sentence 1 in post #1. It is the same.

For some reason, you prefer not to write "I" twice in the sentence, like the native speakers do, which they consider more natural.

Yes, I placed 'due to' at the beginning of the sentence. I wanted to know whether it was gramatically correct to start this sentence with 'due to'.

 

[Barman]

I rewrite the sentence as follows,

1) I couldn't come on the ground of illness.

2) I couldn't come on the score of illness.

Are both of them correct?

 

[GoesStation]

No. They're both wrong.

 

[emsr2d2]

Please advise me if the above-mentioned sentence is correct or not.

I think I've seen you use that phrase before. Please don't use it again. It's not natural to say "above-mentioned sentence". You didn't "mention" anything. You wrote a sentence. Use "Please tell me if the sentence above is correct [or not]."

 

[tedmc]

You could say"...on the grounds that I was sick", but it is not better. The simplest is always the best.

 

[Rover_KE]

During my high school years in the 50s, I remember more than one English Language teacher insisting that the three phrases in the title – plus 'because of' – had distinct and discrete usages which I never fully understood at the time, nor considered particularly important throughout my later life.

I've always chosen the one which 'sounds best' in my own writing/speaking.

 

[tedmc]

Neither have I heard nor read anywhere like this.

I said it is possible but not ideal, since the question was asked by OP about the usage of the phrase. It is usually used in a formal context.

https://fraze.it/n_search.jsp?q=on+the+grounds+that&l=0&t=0&ffo=false&findid=-1&ff=

 

[Barman]

In my post #1, 'owing to' was a compound preposition. Unlike 'owing to', has 'due to' ever become a compound preposition? Doesn't 'due to' retain its adjectival function and must be properly related to the noun or pronoun it qualifies? For example:

A) His illness was due to exposure to cold.

B) The accident was due to his carelessness.

In the above sentences, due to is related adjectivally to illness and accident respectively.

 

[Tarheel]

Yes, I placed 'due to' at the beginning of the sentence. I wanted to know whether it is gramatically correct to start this sentence with 'due to'.

Maybe. But I don't like it much.

 

[probus]

Like Rover, I too have memories from my distant youth of pedants claiming that due to and owing to were not equivalent. And like Rover I didn't quite get it then and I don't get it now. To me they are synonymous.