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Due to/Owing to

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Latest post Fri, Aug 28 2009 8:52 PM by Anonymous. 13 replies.
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s_s_sridhar  +  151076 Mon, 24 Oct 05 02:50 PM

Hai all,

Is there any significant difference between the following statements?

1. We should take the alternative route due to bad road condition.

2. We should take the alternative route owing to bad road condition.

Thanks,

SRI

 

 

 
s_s_sridhar
Joined on Mon, Aug 23 2004
New Member 50
Mister Micawber  +  151077 Mon, 24 Oct 05 02:55 PM

There is no difference in intended meaning, but please see Post:64059.

Hi should be spelled so.
Mister Micawber
Joined on Wed, Aug 4 2004
Yokohama
Veteran Member 30,805
'The question is,' said Humpty Dumpty, 'which is to be master-- that's all.'
Related discussions
s_s_sridhar, 4 yr 31 days ago
Thanks Mr. MM
Anonymous, 3 yr 285 days ago

There actually is a difference between owing to and due to:

Owing to is adverbial
Example: "The match was postponed owing to the rain."

As 'Owing to' is adverbial, it refers to the verb 'postponed'. If you used the adjectival 'due to' it would have to refer to a noun, in this case the match - but the match was not due to the rain!

Due to is adjectival
Example: "There was an increase in the man's temper due to the poor English."

There is a noun 'increase' so that 'due to' can be properly used (it is adjectival, always referring back to a noun).

MrPedantic  +  196504 Tue, 14 Feb 06 01:41 AM

Merriam-Webster and Oxford both describe "owing to" as a preposition, Anon. It consists of the adjective "owing" + the preposition "to". It means "because of".

(We can say the same of "due to".)

MrP
MrPedantic
Joined on Tue, Oct 12 2004
Veteran Member 12,592
...opella forensis / adducit febris...
Goodman  +  196554 Tue, 14 Feb 06 04:12 AM
 S_s_sridhar wrote:

Hai all,

Is there any significant difference between the following statements?

1. We should take the alternative route due to bad road condition.

2. We should take the alternative route owing to bad road condition.

Thanks,

SRI

I don't know what it is but somehow both sounded odd to me. Perhaps, "due to" and "owing" have an implied tone of the past.

I would say:  1) We took the alternate route due to bad road condition.

                    2) Owing to the bad weather, we had to take the alternate route.
Goodman
Joined on Mon, Nov 7 2005
Senior Member 3,816
The name says it all!
Anonymous, 3 yr 284 days ago

Perhaps it is the singular condition that is odd.  I would have advised bad road conditions if I hadn't been distracted by the original underescoring.

('S me. -- MM)


Anonymous, 2 yr 322 days ago
Definitely "owing to"
Anonymous, 1 yr 144 days ago
Due to means "caused by"
Owing to means "because of"
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