Does this sound right to you: 7 Reasons That English Learners Fail
I mean, can ‘reason’ be followed by ‘that’ instead of ‘why’?
Many thanks,
Torsten[YSaerTTEW443543]
TOEIC listening, photographs: Canoeing[YSaerTTEW443543]
It’s an interesting one. Some uses of “reason that” (e.g. “That’s the reason that it didn’t work”) seem almost tolerable, but your example seems definitely wrong to me. It should be “why”.
Hi Dozy, many thanks for this. Maybe it’s an US/UK English issue? I mean, I can’t imagine why these English language experts (they both hold Master degrees in English) would make such mistakes on their ESL service website.[YSaerTTEW443543]
TOEIC listening, photographs: Machu Picchu, Peru[YSaerTTEW443543]
You may be right (or, in fact, this question may be a general bone of contention between speakers). There is a discussion at motivatedgrammar.wordpress.com/2 … ing-wrong/ which says some people argue that “reason why” is illogical. Someone commenting on that page says:
“MWDEU [Merriam-Webster Dictionary of English Usage] says that the dislike of reason why is a twentieth-century American invention. After seven centuries of established usage, someone noticed that the phrase can sometimes be replaced with reason that (though MWDEU notes that this isn’t always possible) and decided, in the grand tradition of many prescriptions, that if there are two ways to say something, one must be wrong. Of course, there’s no reason why this should be.”
Very interesting. To me, the combination ‘reason that’ sounds wrong while ‘reason why’ sound right, especially because we have the same pattern in German and Russian.[YSaerTTEW443543]
TOEIC listening, photographs: Fishing at the ocean shore[YSaerTTEW443543]