How to give reasons in English

Reasons are useful answers to questions. But sometimes, those questions are not easy to answer. Some of my favourite difficult ones are:

Why did you eat the last piece of cake?

Why did you come home late last night?

Why did you delete your browser history?

There are too many ways to explain all the reasons in English for this little blog entry, but fortunately, English has three very useful and extremely common words for reasons. These three little reason-words can get you out of any trouble:

Because, since, and for.

BECAUSE - SINCE

Let's start with some examples to get the idea.

I'm studying English because I want a better job.

-The reason is new for the reader. I know you study English, but I don't know why.

I really like Tom Cruise. Since I like Tom Cruise, I'm watching Mission Impossible.

-After you say the first sentence I know you like Tom Cruise, so when you repeat it as a reason, you can use since.

Use because when the reason will be new information for the listener or reader, and use since when the reason is not new information for the listener or reader. With since, you expect the listener to already know the reason in some way or other. Maybe you already said the reason earlier, or perhaps your shared history, relationship. or interactions have created a world where you both know things about each other. In these cases, you would expect to use since a lot more when talking with friends and family.

Since you want to learn English, I'm going to help you.

-I know you, and I know you want to learn English. The other information (I'm going to help you) is separate from since.

I'm going to help you, because I'm a nice guy.

-You didn't know I'm a nice guy, and that reason is new information for you so we use because.

When the reason is a thing, or person, use because of.

I'm helping you because of my helpful personality.

-Our reason here, "helpful personality", is a thing, so we need because of.

FOR

For is a very powerful word. Use it for the purpose of doing something:

We're going to the supermarket for some eggs

-The main reason, the main purpose for our travel to the supermarket is - eggs.

I stopped working for some coffee.

-I needed coffee so I stopped working for the single purpose of drinking some coffee.

Use for + verb-ing to describe the reason for a reaction. If something is a direct result of, or a reaction to something else, we can use this grammar.

She got an A for studying hard.

He's in prison for speaking English poorly.

Notice here: the reason comes before the action.

Sometimes you will see for used in place of because. This is a special style of English, now commonly associated with poetry, lyrics, or particular drama.

BE CAREFUL JOHN SNOW, FOR THE NIGHT IS DARK AND FULL OF TERRORS.

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