A Word, Please: ‘Because’ and the reason it could wreck a sentence

The reason I’m writing this is because it may be helpful.

See anything wrong with that sentence? Some will. The issue here: “the reason is because.” Many people say that “because” should be “that”: The reason I’m writing this is that it may be helpful.

They have a point. “Reason is because” has, at its heart, a grammar problem, not to mention a logic problem.

The grammar problem here is that “is” calls for a noun. “My car is a Lamborghini.” A noun doesn’t have to be a single word. A cluster of words can function together as a noun. “My car is the purple Lamborghini parked across three spaces.” Everything after “is” in that sentence is part of a larger noun phrase, all serving as the noun introduced by “is.”

A clause introduced by “that” can sometimes be a noun. Think about the sentence “That you love me is all I need to know.” The subject of the main verb is the entire clause “that you love me.” So “that” can create a noun clause.

Clauses introduced with “because” don’t usually function as nouns. That’s why “because you love me is all I need to know” is nonsense.

So if “the reason is” needs a noun to come next, that means “the reason is that” works and “the reason is because” doesn’t.

Makes sense, but grammar is never so simple. And just because “because” doesn’t usually make a noun clause doesn’t mean it can never do so.

“‘Because’ may certainly introduce a noun clause that is joined to ‘it,’ ‘this,’ or ‘that’ by some form of the verb ‘to be,’ as in ‘if you are hungry, it is because you didn’t eat,’” wrote Bergen Evans in the 1962 book “Comfortable Words.” “This has been standard English for centuries and the very grammarians who condemn the use of ‘because’ in a noun clause do not hesitate to write, ‘This is because.’”

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It’s hard to argue with that example, which leads to just one conclusion: Sometimes “because” can create a noun clause, which means that “the reason is because” is grammatical.

There’s another reason to dislike this structure: The word “because” means, basically, “for the reason that.”

Theodore M. Bernstein, author of the 1965 “The Careful Writer,” was a leading voice for this point of view, writing: “However common this construction may be in everyday speech, it is disapproved for shaped writing. Since the meaning of ‘because’ is ‘for the reason that,’ the construction is a redundancy.”

The problem with this idea is that it takes into account only the first definition of “because” in the dictionary: “for the reason that.” But like most words, “because” has more than one definition. Here’s the number two definition in Merriam-Webster’s: “the fact that.” Merriam’s even cites E.B. White, who once used the structure: “The reason I haven’t been fired is because my boss hasn’t got around to it yet.” White’s many claims to fame include his contributions to Strunk and White’s “The Elements of Style,” which has been admired by grammar sticklers for decades.

Clearly, “the reason is because” is OK.

“The reason why” is also controversial, and for similar reasons. It is, in a way, redundant. And it’s usually unnecessary. After all, “The reason why they left” says the same thing as “The reason they left.”

But that doesn’t mean it’s wrong or even that it’s a recent corruption of good English. In fact, “the reason why” has been documented in literature as early as the 13th century. Objections to “the reason why” didn’t appear until about 600 years later. So there’s no reason to say “the reason why” is wrong.

June Casagrande is the author of “The Joy of Syntax: A Simple Guide to All the Grammar You Know You Should Know.” She can be reached at [email protected].