Many students find it difficult to write homophones correctly, that is, words that are pronounced the same but different in writing. Moreover, not only children are mistaken in this, but also adults. Most often, it is difficult to spell derivative prepositions, which are not written in the same way as the independent parts of speech from which they came. One of these combinations is the choice of writing "due to" or "as a consequence." Both students and adults often make mistakes in them. The fact is that it is impossible to remember their spelling, the dictionary will not help either, since the spelling depends on the context.
How to choose the correct spelling?
This is necessary to know not only for students and graduates who are going to take exams. Every adult who respects himself and the people addressed by the written speech must be literate. But in reality, most people choose a way of writing at random.
The difficulty is that there is no definite rule that can be learned. To correctly write "due" or "as a consequence" you just need to understand the difference in their meaning. There is the so-called
innate literacy, which consists in being able to feel the lexical meaning of words. It depends on him
how to write correctly: "due to" or "in consequence".
The difference between prepositions and independent parts of speech
To choose the right spelling, you need to know how the derivative prepositions and the words from which they originate differ.
1. The pretext "due" does not have independent meaning, does not answer the question, and is not a member of the proposal. It is used only with independent parts of speech.
2. A noun can be replaced by another noun that is close in meaning, and the preposition is replaced by other prepositions, often non-derivative: "Due to bad weather - due to bad weather."
3. The combination of a noun with a preposition can be divided by inserting a word between them. The meaning of this will not change. "Last year’s investigation." And with a derivative pretext, this will not work.
“As a result” or “as a consequence”
Everyone knows that nouns with prepositions are always written separately. Therefore, the main thing is to understand how to determine the part of speech in this word. First of all, you can not take it separately from the context. Only by reading the whole sentence will you understand what part of the speech it refers to. And then you can choose the correct spelling. Compare two sentences: “In the investigation, new facts were discovered” and “Due to frost, the lessons were canceled.” Feel the meaning of the word “investigation” in the first sentence. It has a specific meaning, means a phenomenon that can be imagined. The proposal refers specifically to the investigation. And in the second sentence, the word homonymous to him does not carry any semantic load - it says frosts. How else can one prove that this is an independent part of speech? To this word, you can ask the question: "What?" - “in the investigation”, between the preposition and the noun it is possible to insert another word, for example, “in the last year’s investigation”. In the second sentence, this word can only be replaced by the pretext: "Because of frosts, the lessons were canceled." The preposition is so closely connected with the noun that if removed, it will still be implied in meaning.
Noun
The difficulty of writing lies in the fact that this word as a noun has two spelling options. The preposition "c" is written separately in any case, but the ending may be different. Like other nouns, his choice depends on the case. If the word is used in a sentence in the accusative case, the ending will be "e". "What?" - "New employees are involved in the investigation." But in this version, this word is rarely used. The most common spelling is "in consequence". It is a prepositional noun form . "What?" - "In the investigation, new facts were discovered." Therefore, you do not need to remember how to spell the noun "in consequence". If you know the spelling rules and can determine that it is a noun, then writing it will not cause difficulties for you.
The preposition "due"
Like all derivative prepositions, this word is similar to an independent part of speech only in pronunciation. It is always written the same way: together and at the end the letter "e". The main thing to understand is that this is just an excuse in this context. To do this, you need:
- Try to ask a question to him. It will turn out to answer it only together with the noun: "due to what?" - "due to frost."
- Replace it with the pretext "because of." The meaning of the proposal should not change.
- And most importantly, how it is determined that in the sentence this is an excuse - in meaning. It carries no meaning.
What conclusions can be drawn?
It turns out that the spelling "due" - "in consequence" is not governed by any rules. What steps should be taken if you meet this word in the text and don’t know how to write it? Consider three options:
1.
"Due to illness, he stayed at home." We pay attention to the meaning of the word. It denotes a causal relationship and does not have independent significance. It is said in the sentence about the disease, and the word "due" is dependent. One cannot ask him the question: "why?" - "due to illness." In addition, this word can be replaced with the pretext "because" - "Because of the disease, he stayed at home." We conclude that the word is a derivative preposition and is written together with the letter "e" at the end.
2. "New facts were brought into the investigation." It is said in the proposal about the investigation as a phenomenon. To this word, you can ask the question: "what?" - "as a consequence." You can replace it only with another noun: "in documents". In addition, between the “in” and the word itself, you can insert another word: “last year’s consequence”. Conclusion: this is a noun, so "c" is written separately. And since it stands in the accusative case - "what?" - then the letter "e" is written at the end.
3. "These evidence are involved in the investigation." By the way, you can ask the question - "what?" - “in the investigation”, it means a certain phenomenon and can be replaced with the word “investigation”. Therefore, in this sentence, "as a consequence" is written separately with the letter "and" at the end, because there is a word in the prepositional case.
It turns out that everyone who doubts how to write: “in consequence” or “as a result of” the rule does not need to be searched and taught. You must be able to distinguish between derivative prepositions and independent parts of speech.