Because & So: What's The Difference?

a) The baseball game was cancelled because it started  to rain.

b) It started to rain, so the baseball game was cancelled.

The two sentences above don't look very different, but, "because" and "so" have two different functions.

Look at the examples below.

A: Why was the baseball game cancelled? 

B: It was cancelled because it started to rain.

____________________________________________

A: What happened?

B: It started to rain, so the baseball game was cancelled.

We use  because to give the reason for something happening (the rain is the reason the baseball game was cancelled).

So is to say the result of something (the baseball game being cancelled is the result of the rain).

Now, let's practice with the exercise below. Complete the sentences using "because" or "so". You may use the comments section to write your answers.

 

1/ Lina quit her job _______it was too stressful. 

 2/ The queue for the pizza place was very long ______we went to a small, quiet coffee shop. 

3/ Pierre's girlfriend is from Japan ____he's studying Japanese in his free time.

4/ Jiro is taking a second job ______ his living costs in New York are very high.

5/ My husband and I started jogging _______ our doctor said we were overweight.






For extra study, here's James from EngVid.