Many people have various difficulties with the use of the Russian language in oral and written speech. The question of how to spell “because” is one of the common difficulties.
This union is found very often in speech, and perhaps that is why it makes especially many mistakes. They can turn out to be both spelling and punctuation (it is difficult to solve where exactly a comma is needed). Let's look at how to write “because” correctly, and specify where to put commas.
When union applies: main cases
How to spell “because”, and how this combination is applied, the question is rather complicated. Let's start by defining a portion of speech.
Before us is a complex (or compound) union. He usually connects two sentences into one, and thanks to him we can understand the reason for what is happening. As a rule, it is found in complex sentences. These syntactic constructions consist of several parts - the main and one or more subordinates.
The spelling "because"
The named union consists of two words that contain 5 consonants (n, t, m, h, t) and 4 vowels (o, o, y, o). The first word consists of three syllables, where the emphasis falls on the last one, the second one. In the first word, the letter “o” is written in both unstressed syllables.
How do you spell “because” - together or separately?
Now we will figure out how to write “because”: together, separately or, perhaps, through a hyphen?
The words that make up this union are always written separately. There can be no single spelling, as these are two different words. A common mistake is when they are written with a hyphen. Obviously, this is caused, first of all, by the similarity of the word “what” with the particle “-to”, which is written through a hyphen (the example here is the word “because”).
To avoid this error, compare the two sentences in the example above. Please note that the indicated words in them have slightly different meanings:
- Last year, I got bronchitis. That's why I quit smoking.
- I quit smoking last year because I got bronchitis.
When is "by that" written separately?
For many, “by that” and “because” are similar words, although in meaning this is far from the case. They have completely different meanings. In the first case, the proposal mentions those specific objects or features that are emphasized. For instance:
- I immediately concluded that the girl is not rich. This was noticeable by what she wore.
In this case, those things (clothes) that the girl wore are mentioned. That is, the observer can tell by clothing how well-off the girl is. There is no reason, but objects are mentioned.
One more example:
- About the preferences of a person can be concluded by what he buys.
This proposal can be rephrased as follows - on those things that a person buys, we can conclude about his preferences.
In the second case (when “therefore” is written together) the reason for some event is revealed. That is, you can ask the question "why?" and immediately answer him. In this case, the union can be successfully replaced by the synonyms “due,” “since,” “since,” “after all,” and others. For instance:
- I left work early because I felt bad.
In this case, the phrase will look quite organic when replacing the union “because” with another: I left work because I felt bad .
One more example:
- I don’t have money because I spent it.
This phrase does not change its meaning when replacing the union with the word “because”: I do not have money because I spent it.
Punctuation
The greatest difficulty is the question of the use of punctuation in sentences with this union. Usually a comma is placed in front of it. For instance:
- I do not know where he went because he did not tell me about it .
Here you can ask the question: "Because of what I do not know where he went?" And answer him: "Because he did not tell me." That is, we have two sentences that are combined into one subordinate union.
- We were very wet because we were exposed to rain (What was the reason that we were wet? The reason was rain).
- I don’t have a phone because it was stolen (Why I don’t have a phone? Because it was stolen).
There are cases when a comma is placed before the second word of the union and is not placed before “because”:
- With a particle of amplification of meaning (for example, “only”): I liked him only because he treated me with great tenderness.
- With an introductory word, such as “probably”, “should be”, “probably”: They did not come, probably because they were very busy. We never met, it must be because he left before me.
- With a particle of denial “not” before the union: I was not late because I got stuck in traffic.
Total
The Russian language is quite complicated in terms of spelling and punctuation, but this does not justify, for example, paperwork with errors.
So, every self-respecting person should strive to speak and write correctly. This article hopefully helps you. For convenience, we will list again how to spell “because”:
- The named union is always written separately.
- A comma can be placed both in front of and inside it.
- The words “therefore” and “by that” have different meanings and are written differently.