I have a problem with the phrases “due to” and “because of”. Here are examples:

1. We would like to seek your kind approval to waive the overdue interest of this unit due to/because of the delay of renew of fire insurance by XXXXX.

2. Instruction Letter was not sent out by Kiwi Company due to/because of customer’s MyCard (new I/C) still not ready.

3. Power of Attorney was/had failed to High Court last week, but due to/because of customer has not settle/settled the legal fee/fees, lawyer cannot advice/advise bank release payment to ...

(Had is also the past tense of is, so we can use “had failed”, Can’t we?) – Confused

English language experts (with very few exceptions) are now generally agreed that “due to” and “because of”, which are both prepositions, have the same meaning. You can use either expression in sentence 1), but in sentences 2) and 3), you should use “because” (a conjunction), NOT “because of” or “due to”. A preposition must be followed by a noun or pronoun, not a clause.

I would like to correct some grammatical errors you made in your sentences:

1. In the last part of this sentence, “the delay of renew of fire insurance” should be corrected to “the delay in renewing the fire insurance”.

2. I will rewrite this sentence to correct its errors:

“The Instruction Letter has not been sent by Kiwi Company because the customer’s MyCard (new I/C) is not ready yet.”

You need an article before “Instruction Letter”. Also, it is better to use the present perfect negative (has not been sent) rather than the past tense, because the sentence implies that you are describing the present situation, not a past situation. We also say “send” a letter, not “send out” a letter. And you need the verb “is” after MyCard.

3. I will rewrite this sentence too:

“The application to get a Power of Attorney was turned down by the High Court last week, but because the customer has not settled the legal fees, our lawyer cannot advise the bank to release payment to ...”

“Had” is NOT the past tense of “is”. It is the past tense of “have”. If you use “had failed” you would be using the past perfect tense, which is not necessary in this case, because only one action in the past was mentioned.

Also, I think that what happened in the High Court was NOT that the Power of Attorney failed, but that “the application to get a Power of Attorney was turned down (“refused”) by the Court. You also need an article before “Power of Attorney”, “High Court” and “bank” and a “to” before “release”.

Why ‘were’ instead of ‘was’?

Dorothy wishes she were taller.

I read this sentence on the Internet, but was puzzled why it uses “were”, the plural verb of “to be”. Isn’t “was” the appropriate verb? Here’s another sentence: “If he were a girl, he would understand my feelings.” – S.S. Rajah

In both the sentences you quote, the verb “were” is a special subjunctive form of the verb “be”, which is the same as its simple past plural form. This form is used only with the first or third person singular pronoun (i.e. I, he, she or it) and after “wish”, or “if” in a second conditional sentence (i.e. one that talks about an unlikely or impossible situation). That is why we say:

“Dorothy wishes she were (not “was”) taller.”

“If he were (not “was”) a girl, he would understand my feelings. (it is impossible for him to be a girl)

We often use such constructions, perhaps without realising it, e.g. “I wish I were a billionaire!” and “If I were you, I would take the exams again.”

Sentence structure

I have some queries on the following sentences and hope you will provide some guidance.

1. Large number of Malaysians from Sabah and Sarawak are familiar with things in the Peninsular than is the case in the reverse. (from an English newspaper)

Why isn’t the clause in bold written instead as “it is in the reverse”?

2. Only with constructive engagement with all levels of society and a sense of civic responsibility will we overcome prejudice and discrimination. (from an English newspaper)

Why isn’t the clause “we will overcome prejudice and discrimination”?

3. Is there any difference in:

a) Happy belated birthday; and

b) Belated happy birthday?

In my opinion, “Happy belated birthday” is said when we send our wishes to someone on a date which is later than the actual birthday. We will say “belated happy birthday”  if someone celebrates his/her birthday later than the actual birthday. Am I correct? – David Tan

1. The clause “than is the case in the reverse” already has a subject, which is “the case in the reverse” – here meaning “the opposite situation”. So there is no need to add an “it” there. What we see in that clause is an example of inversion of the subject and verb (“is”), which is sometimes used in a comparative structure containing “than”. If there was no inversion, the clause would read “than the case in the reverse is”, which would sound rather awkward stylistically. Here are some examples of similar inversions from the Internet:

On 16th March The Times referred to Home Office statistics taken from the 1981 police report, which showed that blacks are 36 times more liable to be attacked by whites than is the case in reverse. (Lord Hunt in the House of Lords)

“Our children have less protection now than did Victoria Climbié” (The Guardian, Feb 28, 2007)

Did you quote the sentence correctly? Since it is a comparative sentence, it should begin with “A larger number” to go with “than” later on. Also, “the Peninsular” should be changed to “the Peninsula”, since “Peninsular” is an adjective. The sentence should therefore read:

“A larger number of Malaysians from Sabah and Sarawak are familiar with things in the Peninsula than is the case in (the) reverse.” (I placed “the” before “reverse” in brackets because the expression “in (the) reverse” is more often used without “the”.)

2. This is another case of inversion, but here, only the auxiliary verb (“will”) changes position with the subject (“we”), while the main verb (“overcome”) remains in its usual place after the verb. This kind of inversion is like that used in questions, (e.g. “Will you come with me?”) and can be used when “only” begins a sentence that has an auxiliary verb as well as a main verb. (See the “HELP” sections of the online Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary in the entry for “Only” as an adverb.)

(oald8.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/dictionary/only_2)

We use this kind of structure often without realising it, in sentences like: “Only when we exercise regularly do we feel really fit.”

3. “Belated” means “coming or happening late”. So there is no such thing as a belated birthday, since a person’s birthday falls on a definite date each year. So the greeting “Happy belated birthday” is meaningless. There can be a belated birthday greeting, however, because we are sometimes late in wishing our friends “Happy Birthday!”. So, it is all right to say “Belated Happy Birthday!”, because “Happy Birthday!” really means “Happy Birthday greetings”. To be clearer, you can write “Please accept belated Happy Birthday greetings from me.”

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