Hoggirl Posted October 4, 2012 Share Posted October 4, 2012 Which is correct? The reason I am hungry is because I skipped breakfast. The reason I am hungry is that I skipped breakfast. I am having a disagreement with someone over this. Ack! I also realize it could be: I am hungry because I skipped breakfast or perhaps The reason I am hungry is I skipped breakfast, or possible other better ways! But, given the first two, which is correct? And can you explain why? I was taught that one of those first two is wrong. TIA! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
regentrude Posted October 4, 2012 Share Posted October 4, 2012 (edited) "The reason... is that..." is correct. (Or: I am hungry because ....) "the reason is.. because..." is incorrect. It is redundant. You could ask "what is the reason" or "why", but you would not ask "why is the reason". Edited October 4, 2012 by regentrude Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hoggirl Posted October 4, 2012 Author Share Posted October 4, 2012 "The reason... is that..."is correct. (Or: I am hungry because ....) "the reason is.. because..." is incorrect. It is redundant. The person with whom I am disagreeing concedes redundancy. But somewhere along the way I was taught there is no "is because." Can "is because" be used in a sentence correctly? Or is the issue always redundancy? In other words, is it technically incorrect or is it a style issue? Thanks, again. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
regentrude Posted October 4, 2012 Share Posted October 4, 2012 But somewhere along the way I was taught there is no "is because." Can "is because" be used in a sentence correctly? Or is the issue always redundancy? In other words, is it technically incorrect or is it a style issue? Thanks, again. I can't think of a sentence where "is because" would be good grammar. It is "I am hungry because I skipped breakfast." or "I am late because I overslept." "Because" is a subordinating conjunction starting a depending clause that provides and explanation to the independent clause. I don't see how one could correctly construct a sentence with "is because". Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Amy in NH Posted October 4, 2012 Share Posted October 4, 2012 You guys need to go eat! :tongue_smilie: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Karen in CO Posted October 4, 2012 Share Posted October 4, 2012 Here is a nice discussion of it with word frequency graphs and charts pulled from American historical writing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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