Basic English: Learn the difference between BECAUSE and SO

Man, that car goes so fast. I'd like one, but, you know, because I don't have the money

right now, I -- hi. James, from EngVid. I'm looking at some serious automobiles. They

are so cool, and they go so fast it's incredible, you know? $50,000 -- I thought so. It's more

money than that. Anyway. Today, we're going to do a lesson on "because" and "so". The

reason why is because a lot of students get confused with -- and I love the word "confused",

so let's change that to a lot of students don't understand the difference between when

to use "so" or "because", so they generally -- I'm using "so" again -- use "because".

It's easier. But today, we're going to learn the difference so you can start using it in

your language like a native speaker, okay? Let's go to the board.

"He said I'm fat, so I hit him. Blam!" "I hit him because he said I was fat. Blam!"

What's the difference? "Mr. E punched me twice." Right? It hurt. It's still hurting. All right?

Do you know the difference between "so" and "because"? I can speak English. Because you're

reading the sentence, it seems to be the same thing. I said "fat"; I got hit. Right? Right.

But how do we know the difference, and what is the difference? Let's go to the board and

look at the grammar to start with. And then afterwards, we'll show examples of how it's

different. All right? So you can start using it right away.

First of all, I'm going to start with "because". It's easy. You'll notice a little here -- well,

a little here and a lot there. "Because." It's a reason. It's why. So when you use "because",

somebody usually says to you why. And then, you say "because". "I am late." "Why?" "Because

the train was late." "I am happy." "Why?" "Because I won a million dollars. I am happy

--" you got it. Right? It's a conjunction. So what it does is it takes two statements

and puts them together. "I did it because it was the right thing." It brings two statements

together. Conjunction. "Con" means "with" and "junction", like joint, joined with each

other. Right? So it's a basic conjunction.

Now, what we want to look at is "so". Here's where the difficulty comes in because "so"

is a conjunction as well. You'll notice Mr. E is holding an arrow -- I'm sorry, a box.

And it's saying -- look. They're both the same. They're both conjunctions. They both

join statements together. "It was hot, so I bought an ice cream." Right? So you go,

"What? You bought an ice cream?" "Yeah. I bought an ice cream. It was hot, so I bought

an ice cream." Cool? So when you're doing that, you're joining it together just like

the conjunction for "because". Cool?

And that's what caused the problem: They're both conjunctions. But "so" answers a different

question. When you say the reason or you answer "why" for "because" -- "I am fat because I

eat too much food." -- this is the reason. "So" is more of a result. What happened? Okay.

"It was raining very, very, very, very hard, so I got wet." "What happened?" "Well, it

was raining really hard." "What happened?" "I got wet." "Oh." You could say this is the

reason, and that's why they're conjunctions. But then, "so" goes on to telling you what

happened, the next thing that happened, the next step. It doesn't always give you the

reason for it. Right? "He ate dinner at seven o'clock, so I had dinner at 7:30 because I

was hungry, too." Notice I said "because". That was the reason. But I said this happened,

this happened, and the reason was because I was hungry, too. I've taken them and joined

them together to show you a little bit of a difference. This is like action to action.

And this is why the action happened. All right?

There's another difference with "so" that I like. That should help you with them. "So"

is also an adverb. We use it to show the extent or the range -- how far it is. I'll give you

an example. You know me. "James talks very fast." You can also say, "James talks so fast,

half the time, I can't understand him." And you'll go, "Why?" "Yeah. He talks so fast."

And that tells me the range. What we have here is verb plus "so". And that's how we

show the adverb, how it works together. Okay? Right. Or, "She looks so good tonight." "She

looks so good" is a big range. She looks really good. Smashing. Right?

We can also use it to tell truth. What? Yeah. I thought so. You didn't know that, right?

Well, I think so. In saying, "I thought so", I believe this is a true statement. This is

true. Or I think so, "I believe it is true." "Because" doesn't have any of that. "Because"

is limited to a conjunction function only. All right? So I hope you get this. Okay? So

we've got the difference. There is one thing for "because", right? It's a conjunction,

and that's an answer to "why", the reason why. And for "so", we have two things. The

first thing we have to look at is it answers the question of result. What happened? Right?

This, so this happened. Right? "People aren't buying, so we dropped our prices." So what

happened? Prices were dropped. Okay? But it can also be an adverb. Modify the verb, so

verb plus "so", saying how fast, how slow, how high, how low. Or we can use it in a statement

or a phrase -- "I thought so", "I think so" -- to talk about truth. You like that? Good.

Give me a second. We're going to put it together.

Snap, and I'm back. All right. So board change, meaning, new lesson. What we are going to

do now -- we've already discussed what the differences are, and we talked about the grammar.

Let's use it as examples. All right? So "Canadians are -- something -- polite. We don't talk

to each other." Well, what would that be? Right. We're going to look at two things.

Is it "because"? "Canadians are because" -- no. We're going to say "so polite". And remember,

there are a couple of things we learned about "so". "So" is a conjunction. In this case,

is it acting like a conjunction? No. We're using it as an extent. We're talking about

the range, right? Extent. Like "so hot", "so cold". They're so polite, right, that they

don't talk to each other. And it's true. You will see two Canadians walk by, smile, and

say nothing because they don't want to interrupt each other's personal space. It's quite cute.

All right. Next. How about this one? "Are you sick?" "Yes". "I thought because --" well, it doesn't

seem like we're offering up a reason, does it? No. So you'd probably say, "I thought

so." Do you remember we said "so" introduces truth? "I thought so", "I think so". All right.

So we're talking about truth. "I thought you were sick. I believed it was true."

Truth. Okay? That's the other reason we use "so".

Now, let's go to the other part of the board here, okay? "I helped him pay for it -- something

-- he was a nice guy." It seems like I've got two statements here, right? "He's a nice

guy" is a statement, and "I helped him pay for it" -- okay. So is it, "I helped him pay

for it, so he's a nice guy"? That doesn't seem to make sense. "So he's a nice guy."

How do I know he's a nice guy? It doesn't really answer the question "what happened?"

What it really answers is the question "why?" Right? So we'd probably put down this,

"because".

So, "I helped him pay for it because he's a nice guy." And that is a reason why I did

something. And that's what we said. "Because" is a conjunction that brings two statements

together, and in this case, gives us the reason. Right?

And how about the last one? "I broke it because I had to pay for it." Now I sound kind of

crazy. "I broke it because I had to pay for it." It probably didn't happen that way. That

doesn't seem logical. I think what happened was this: I broke it, and then somebody said,

"So what happened?" And I go, "I had to pay for it." Okay? So we're going to use "so".

And "so" is what? Remember we said reason? And we say result. The result of my action,

breaking it, caused me to have to pay for it. Remember, we said "because" is for "why",

and when we say result and we use "so", it's "what happened?" Right? Cool.

Hope you liked the lesson because it's a pretty good one, so I know you're going to learn

for it. And you've learned one, two different -- three, four different things. Especially,

I'm sure you learned the difference between result and reason, "so", and "because" because

it was a good lesson. And you know, now I've got to go. So E, you, I -- let's go. Conjunction,

right? Don't forget: conjunction, reason, and result, and you'll be fine. Anyway. Have

a great one. But before I go, I need you to go to www.engvid.com, "eng" as in "English",

"vid" as in "video" so you can learn more English with our other instructors because

it's a pretty good site and I know you'll enjoy it. Have a good one. E, let's go,

so you don't get into any more trouble.