 Grammar Geek wrote: |
The fitting room was in use, so you had to wait for a while.
I know that I'm a dinosaur, but I try not to use "since" when I mean "because." |
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Hi Barbara,
I am with you on this. The usage of
since is rather ambiguous in the following sentence:
Since it began to rain, John hasn't gone out - Was the rain the reason for John to stay inside ? Not sure!
That said, I was taught that when the dependent clause follows
the main one, the presence / absence of a comma would clear thing up:
1.
John hasn't gone out, since it began to rain. (introducing a reason)
2. John hasn't gone out since it began to rain. (marking time).
Since in the sense of
because in sentence #1 sounds less emphatic than
because.