Because - Because Of - What's the Difference?

Because

Because of

What's the difference?

How about the word of?

And what kind of word is of?

It's a preposition!

What's a preposition? You know, one of those terrible words that drives you crazy because there are so many of them and they don't really follow the rules. They are like mercury. You try to pick them up and they slip - under, over, through, in, on, between - your fingers.

And what comes after a preposition?

Nouns and gerunds! Only! Only nouns and gerunds!

And what's a gerund? Another terrible thing. A verb + ing. But it's not really a verb. Not really. It's like someone wearing a mask.

Laughing
Dancing
Walking
Talking
Jumping
Leaping
Wearing a mask!

We use gerunds like nouns. We talk about activities. We talk about nouns.
We talk about cooking, baking, frying, simmering, boiling, peeling, tasting, eating fish, potatoes, chicken, asparagus, apples, bananas, yams, and bulbs of fennel.

Back to our question: What's the difference?

Here's an answer:

because of - must be followed by a noun or gerund.

because - can be followed by other things

And we know, right, that we use these words to explain things, to give answers, to tell why something is, to answer questions, to say this is the reason for blah blah blah.

Example:

Because of traffic, I was a little late for work this morning.
Because I did not leave early enough, I was a little late for work this morning.

Because of my mother, I know how to mend clothes.
Because my mother took the time to teach me, I can mend clothes and hem pants.

Because of my daughter, I had a wonderful Mother's Day.
Because my daughter wrote a beautiful poem for me and then took a bike ride with me along the water, I had a wonderful Mother's Day.

What are

I did not leave early enough
My mother took the time to teach me.
My daughter wrote a beautiful poem for me and then took a bike ride with me along the water?

They are clauses.

Does your brain feel like it is on fire?

Mine does.

I hate grammar words. I really do.

I love writing.

I kind of like grammar when I study another language. I like understanding how the puzzle pieces fit together.

But in general, for English, I hate grammar words. They make my head explode. Yes, really they do.

I try to explain grammar for people like me, people who don't like grammar, people who want to talk and write and sing and dance and communicate. And drink coffee. And relax. Maybe near a beach. But not think too much about grammar. Or our heads will explode.

So what is a clause?

Oh, I really I hate that word.

But a clause is a subject - that's a person, place, thing - you know, something you're talking about.

Plus a lot of other stuff. Mostly, it is information about something, someone, or some place.

You're saying something about something.

English is a crazy language. That's a clause.
Other languages are crazy, too. That's another clause.
People are interesting. People are crazy. People create languages and they change all the time because people change. People and languages are like mercury. Those are more clauses.

That's enough grammar.

My head is very, very close to exploding.

The next thing I will write about must be about something else - writing, communication, American culture.

If you want to practice because and because of, go to http://www.usingenglish.com/quizzes/220.html

Because of the Internet, you can learn a lot about English, grammar, and relaxing with coffee near beaches.

And mercury.