'Because' and 'Since'

aizy_cn

'Because' and 'Since'
Since You Asked...
: N8 j% n9 D0 ]0 n0 Y% c2 ]By Evan Jenkins

4 O2 A- H2 o2 ]André E. Maillho, managing editor of Gambit, an alternative weekly in New Orleans, noticed that "you, like millions of other Americans, tend to use the word 'since' to convey a causative relationship," and added, "An old editor once scolded me to differentiate between 'since' and 'because' and it's been a reflex ever since...What's your take?"
+ j) q7 z! d7 i/ ]& {& g
That old editor once had a fairly numerous following, but the words are usually interchangeable. A problem can arise ̬ maybe the reason for the old editor's edict—if "since" can be read mistakenly in its time sense: "Since she called him a fool, he has stopped campaigning" is ambiguous, for example. When there's no trap of that kind, "since" means "because" and vice versa.

CJR