試試看你看不看得出來這句話哪裡錯了：

(X) It was cancelled due to rain.
活動因雨取消了。
(X)Due to John’s absence, the boss got very angry.
由於John的缺席，老闆很生氣。

假如你以前學的文法告訴你，Due to=because of，這兩個詞可以代換，那你一定看不出來這兩句的問題在哪裡。

Due to和Because of這兩個詞，意思相近，但用法卻完全不同。兩者不能夠代換。

首先，"Due to"本質上是形容詞，只能修飾「狀態」，而"Because of"是副詞本質，修飾「動作」。來看例句：
他因為準備不足而失敗了。 
(O)His failure was due to poor preparation.
Due to說明failure的原因，failure是狀態。
(X)He failed due to poor preparation.
Failed是動作，不能用due to來說明。如果要改，可以改成
(O)He failed because of poor preparation.

有人覺得這種判斷不容易，有個簡單方法，可以幫助你斷到底要用because of還是due to。
記住：Caused by=due to。
例如：
I missed the bus due to the rain.
=I missed the bus caused by the rain. (X) 這句話不通。
所以要改成I missed the bus because of the rain.

Due to誤用，有時連老外也犯。來看看幾個國外網站的說明：
BBC英國國家廣播說：
"Due to. This means caused by, not because of".
Due to意思是"caused by" (起因於)，不是because of. (因為)

經濟學人寫得更直接:
 "When used to mean caused by, due to must follow a noun, as in The cancellation, due to rain, of... Do not write It was cancelled due to rain. If you mean because of and for some reason are reluctant to say it, you probably want owing to. It was cancelled owing to rain is all right."
不要再寫＂It was cancelled due to rain.＂這樣的句子了，假如你要說明原因，又不那麼想用because of，你可以用＂It was cancelled owing to rain is all right.＂
Owing to，這個字不那麼簡單，有機會再詳談。

1. The winner was her. 獲勝者是她。
2. Peter’s new colleague is not more than a smug. Peter的新同事不過是個自己為是的傢伙。
3. I usually go to work with the MRT. 我通常搭捷運上班。
4. This building is not expensive though locating at the center of the city. 儘管位在市中心，這棟大樓卻不貴。
5. The breaking news was surprising me. 這條即時新聞嚇到我了。

1. The winner was she. 這個句子的句型是 (主詞+動詞+主詞補語)。主詞補語和主詞同格，所以要用主格，不用受格。
2. Peter’s new colleague is no more than a smug. 「不過是」、「僅僅」是no more than…，not more than是「不超過…」，例：The budget shall not be more than NT$ 1 million. 這項預算不應該超過一百萬。
3. I usually take the MRT to work. / I usually go to work by the MRT. 搭交通工具常用的動詞為take，以介系詞表示用by。雖然with有「用…」「跟…」的意思，但是乘客並不是「操作捷運上下班」也不是「跟著捷運上下班」。
4. This building is not expensive though located at the center of the city. though在這裡做從屬連接詞，原句是省略it is located，動詞做被動，所以省略後的分詞要改為過去分詞。
5. The breaking news surprised me. surprise本身就是「使…驚嚇」，如果要說A嚇到B，英文直接說A surprise B就可以，本句應該表示已經發生過的事，所以用過去式。surprising是「令人感到驚訝」，後面若有受詞要加上to，本句也可用The breaking news is/was surprising to me.。