Due To vs. Owing To vs. Because Of vs. On Account Of
- The flight was delayed, due/owing to bad weather.
- The project has been cancelled, due/owing to lack of support.
Due to can be put after the verb be. Owing to cannot be used like this.
- The delay was due to bad weather. (BUT NOT The delay was owing to bad weather.)
- A lot of your unhappiness is due to boredom.
- My success is due to my education.
Study the following examples:
- The man was detained because of his suspicious behaviour.
- The man was detained due to his suspicious behaviour.
- The man was detained owing to his suspicious behaviour.
- The man was detained on account of his suspicious behaviour.
As you can see all of these prepositions are usually interchangeable.
- The jet was grounded because of / on account of / due to / owing to engine trouble.
- The match was cancelled due to / owing to / on account of / because of bad weather.
With preparatory it
All of these prepositions can be used with preparatory it.
- It was because of / on account of / owing to / due to his hard work that he succeeded in life.
- It was due to / owing to / because of / on account of traffic congestion that I missed my flight.
- It was due to / owing to / because of / on account of illness that I failed my test.
Some people believe that it is wrong to use owing to after it is/was. However, this usage is also becoming acceptable now.
Due to, owing to and on account of are mainly used in a formal style. In a less formal style, we prefer the conjunction because. Note that a conjunction should be followed by a clause and not a noun.
- The jet was grounded because it had engine trouble. (NOT The jet was grounded because engine trouble.)
- The match was cancelled because it rained.
- He succeeded because he worked hard.
- The man was detained because his behaviour was suspicious.
