ESL General English Grammar Questions

Re: die because of ...

Mr Wordy — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 00:30:51 GMT

For medical conditions or injuries, "because of" sounds odd, and it's better to use the words "of", "from", "as a result of", etc., as appropriate:

He died as a result of the lesion.
He died from his injuries.
He died of pneumonia.

In other cases, "because of" can be OK. For example:

He died because of what he knew.

Re: die because of ...

CalifJim — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 00:26:25 GMT

Seraphin
But what about ?? "he died because of the lesion" ??

I find it better than "died of the lesion", because a lesion is not a disease. Typically die of is followed by the name of a disease. (died of cancer, died of liver disease, ...) But you can also die of a wound or wounds, or an infection, or starvation. And you can also refer metaphorically to emotional states as if they were diseases. (died of heartbreak, died of loneliness, died of embarrassment, etc.)

You are right that there are no rules. It's a matter of what combinations of words are normally said by native speakers.

die because of ...

Seraphin — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 20:37:03 GMT

there are probably NO rules to this -

and from a post back in 2005, there were some discussions on the usage of "die because of"

it was stated that the usage of "die because of" in general is wrong.

For example, "he died because of cancer" is wrong

But what about ?? "he died because of the lesion" ??