This blog post will explore the grammar of cause and effect. You will learn about how to link different grammatical structures together, and see examples of these structures.
Noun Phrase to Noun Phrase
A noun phrase (NP) includes a noun (a person, place, or thing) and modifiers (e.g. adjectives). It is not a complete sentence. Examples of NPs include “heavy rain”, “eating unhealthy food” and “cigarette smoke”.
To connect an NP to another NP, we can use verbs + prepositions. For example:
Cause to effect
Heavy rainleads toflooding.
Eating unhealthy foodresults inobesity.
Effect to cause
Health problemsstem fromcigarette smoke.
Floodingresults fromheavy rain.
“Behaves like verb + preposition”
We can also connect an effect NP to a cause NP using the phrases “is because of” and “is due to”. These look like prepositional phrases, but they function like verb + preposition. For example:
Floodingis due toheavy rain.
Health problemsare because ofsmoking.
Clause to Clause
A clause is a complete idea with a subject and verb (and sometimes an object). Examples include “It rained heavily”, “There are floods”, “You eat unhealthy food”, and “He smokes”. Note the punctuation. When the cause comes first, you may need to add punctuation.
To connect a clause to a clause, we can use discourse markers. To illustrate:
Cause to effect
It rained heavily, sothere are floods.
You eat unhealthy food. Thus, you are obese.
Effect to cause
He has health problemsbecausehe smokes.
There are floodssinceit rained heavily.
Clause to NP
To connect a clause to an NP, we can use a prepositional phrase. Note the punctuation. When the cause comes first, you need to separate the noun phrase from the clause using a comma.
Cause to effect
As a result ofsmoking, he has health problems.
Due toheavy rain, there are floods.
Because ofeating unhealthy food, you are obese.
Effect to cause
He has health problemsas a result ofsmoking.
There are floodsbecause ofheavy rain.
You are obesedue toeating unhealthy food.
Vocabulary
Verb + preposition
to lead to
to result from
to result in
to stem from
“Behaves like verb + preposition”
to be due to
to be because of
Discourse marker
therefore
thus
consequently
so
because
as a result
as a consequence
since
Prepositional phrase
because of
as a result of
as a consequence of
due to
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