Because of vs owing to

[Enjoyenglish]

Hello.
- I felt a lot fitter ______________ all the exercise I was doing.
A- because of (key)
B- owing to
I have been taught that BECAUSE OF, DUE TO, OWING TO and ON ACCOUNT OF are similar in meaning. So why is B incorrect, please?

 

[ChinaDan]

I just did a quick search to see if it could expedite my settling on a concise answer. There are a lot of bad concepts about this question out there. First, be mindful that "similar" is not the same thing as "equal".

To me, "because of" is used when there is a direct causal link:
"The road is wet because of the rain".

"Owing to" and "due to" I feel connect an event to a reason for the event happening. I prefer "due to", so:
"The game was cancelled due to the rain".

I am making the argument that the road getting wet is simply what always happens when it rains. On the other hand, we could have played our game in the rain. The rain was simply the reason why we chose not to play.

"Lots of our glasses get broken because of the vibrations of freight trains vibrating them off the shelf".
"I decided to move all of our glasses into a box due to so many getting broken falling off the shelf".

Final comment. It's just my bias, but I associate "on account of" with a Western. "My Pa hired a bunch of cowboys with rifles on account of cattle rustlers stealing our herds". It means the same as "due to" or "owing to", but to me it has an "old fashioned" flavor to it.

 

[Enjoyenglish]

Thank ChinaDan. I have just found this. It says
Due to and owing to are similar in meaning to on account ofand because of. They are all prepositions used with noun phrases and are often used interchangeably. They indicate that something happened as a result of something or introduce the reason for something happening:

• 'He was kept in after school due to/owing to his bad behaviour.' = He was kept in after school on account of/because of his bad behaviour.
• 'Due to/owing to a broken propeller, the new cruise liner returned immediately to port.' = 'The new cruise liner returned immediately to port because of/on account of a broken propeller.'

http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/grammar/learnit/learnitv56.shtml

 

[ChinaDan]

Surprisingly, many people misuse because of and due to without even realizing it. The difference is subtle, so some people do not make the distinction. In spite of this,the rule should be followed, especially in formal writing.



THE RULE



Due to is a predicate adjective + preposition that means “the result of” or “resulting from.”It is always used after a form of the verb to be.

• E.g. Her headache was due to the enormous elephant peculiarly perched on her head.

Because of is a preposition used to introduce an adverbial phrase and means “as a result of.” It is not used after a form of the verb to be.

• E.g. She had a headache because of the enormous elephant peculiarly perched on her head.

THE TRICK



Due to has to follow some form of the verbto be.

LinguisTech: http://linguistech.ca/Tips+and+Tricks+-+Because+of+vs.+Due+to
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[Enjoyenglish]

So the question in my OP is "a bad one", isn't it, Piscean?

 

[SoothingDave]

"Owing to" sounds old fashioned to me.

 

[GoesStation]

The owing to versus due to debate is a complete waste of bandwidth. Either phrase works anywhere the other does.