Although SINCE and AS are conjunctions that can be used to express cause or reason, BECAUSE is the most direct choice when you want to indicate the why of something. It is the only one of the three that does not have alternate meanings. As a writer and an editor, I choose BECAUSE in most instances to avoid confusion. Here are some examples:

I am asking for leniency BECAUSE I have returned all of the questionable funds.

BECAUSE the tornadoes have created so much damage, the school year will end early.

I bring up this point BECAUSE so many readers have asked about it.

 

The word SINCE is better used when referring to time than to cause or reason. (This is not an absolute rule, but it makes a good "rule of thumb" to avoid confusion.)

I have not spoken to Cecilia SINCE she moved to Texas.

SINCE the curfew was put in place, there has been much less vandalism.

I have not eaten a thing SINCE Harold left me.

 When the word AS is used to express cause or reason, it sounds stilted and stuffy to me. Consider these examples. In my opinion, each sentence would sound better with BECAUSE:

AS the tornadoes have caused so much damage, the school year will end early.

AS Jeffrey speaks only Japanese, we will not be able to hire him for this project.

I cannot complete this report by Friday AS I have too many other deadlines.

express 

Tags: conjunction

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 26th, 2011 at 6:28 pm and is filed under Grammar, word usage. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.