Many students find it difficult to spell homophones correctly, that is, words that are pronounced the same but differ in writing. Moreover, not only children are mistaken in this, but also adults. Most often, it is difficult to spell derivative prepositions that are written differently from the independent parts of speech from which they originated. One of these combinations is the choice of spelling "due to" or "due to". 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?
It's not only schoolchildren and graduates who are going to take exams that need to know. Every adult person who respects himself and the people he addresses withwritten language, must be literate. But in fact, most people choose to write at random.
The difficulty is that there is no definite rule that can be learned. To correctly write "due to" or "due to" you just need to understand the difference in their meaning. There is a 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 "as a result".
The difference between prepositions and independent parts of speech
To choose the right spelling, you need to know the difference between derivative prepositions and the words from which they came.
1. The preposition "due to" has no independent meaning, does not answer the question and is not a member of the sentence. It is used only with independent parts of speech.
2. The noun can be replaced by another noun, close in meaning, and the preposition is replaced by other prepositions, often non-derivative: "Due to bad weather - because of bad weather".
3. The combination of a noun with a preposition can be separated by inserting a word between them. The meaning of this will not change. "In last year's investigation." And with a derivative preposition, this will not work.
"Due to" or "due to"
That nouns with prepositionsalways written separately, everyone knows. Therefore, the main thing is to understand how to determine the part of speech of this word. First of all, it cannot be taken separately from the context. Only after reading the whole sentence, you will understand what part of speech it refers to. And then you can choose the correct spelling. Compare the two sentences: “In the investigation of the case, new facts were discovered” and “Due to frost, the lessons were canceled.” Feel the meaning of the word "effect" in the first sentence. It has a specific meaning, means a phenomenon that can be imagined. It is said in the proposal about the investigation. And in the second sentence, the homonymous word does not carry any semantic load - it says about frosts. How else can you prove that this is an independent part of speech? To this word, you can ask the question: “In what?” - “in consequence”, it is possible to insert another word between the preposition and the noun, for example, “in last year's investigation”. In the second sentence, this word can only be replaced by a preposition: "Due to frost, the lessons were canceled." The preposition is so closely related to the noun that if it is removed, it will still be implied by the meaning.
Noun
The spelling is also difficult because this word as a noun has two spellings. The preposition "in" is written separately in any case, but the ending can be different. Like other nouns, its choice depends on the case. If the word is used in a sentence in the accusative case, then the ending will be "e". "Into what?" - "ATnew employees are involved in the investigation. "But in this version this word is rarely used. The most common spelling is "in the investigation." This is the form of the noun in the prepositional case. "In what?" - "In the investigation of the case, new facts were found." memorize how the noun is spelled “in consequence.” If you know the spelling rules and can determine that it is a noun, then writing it will not cause you any difficulties.
Preposition "due to"
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 of the letter "e". The main thing is to understand that in this context it is a preposition in front of you. For this you need:
- Try asking him a question. It will turn out to answer it only together with the noun: "due to what?" - "due to frost".
- Replace it with the preposition "because of". The meaning of the sentence must not change.
- And most importantly, how it is determined that this is a preposition in a sentence - according to the meaning. It does not carry any semantic load.
What conclusions can we draw?
It turns out that the spelling "due to" - "due to" is not regulated by any rules. What steps should be taken if you come across this word in the text and do not know how to write it? Consider three options:
1. "Due to illness, he stayed at home." Pay attention tothe meaning of the word. It denotes a causal relationship and does not carry an independent meaning. It is said in the sentence about the disease, and the word "due to" is dependent. It is impossible to ask him the question: "due to what?" - due to illness. In addition, this word can be replaced by the preposition "because of" - "Because of illness, 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 have been introduced into the investigation." The sentence speaks of a consequence as a phenomenon. To this word, you can ask the question: "into what?" - "in consequence". You can only replace it with another noun: "to documents". In addition, another word can be inserted between "in" and the word itself: "in the last year's investigation." Conclusion: this is a noun, so "in" is written separately. And since it stands in the accusative case - "into what?" - then the letter "e" is written at the end.
3. "These pieces of evidence are involved in the investigation." By the way, you can ask the question - "in what?" - "in consequence", it means a certain phenomenon and it can be replaced by the word "investigation". Therefore, in this sentence, "in consequence" is written separately with the letter "and" at the end, because the word is in the prepositional case.
It turns out that everyone who doubts how to write: "as a result" or "due to" the rule does not need to be searched and taught. It is necessary to be able to distinguish between derivative prepositions andindependent parts of speech.
