One of the greatest things in learning a language is when you learn different ways of saying the same thing.

As an advanced student, you already know that in order to express cause and reason you can use the words as, because and since:

He had to close the school after the accident because he was the principal.
As your brother is not coming to pick you up, do you want me to drive you home?
Since you’re not going to eat that piece of cake, can I eat it?

There are some other ways to express cause and reason in English. Check them out:

Owing to the lack of funds, they had to postpone the project.
Due to the lack of funds, they had to postpone the project.
The postponement of the project was caused by the lack of funds.
The cause of the postponement of the project was lack of funds.

There are some other ways to show cause and reason with specific words and expressions.

We use the verb to spark off when there is a very strong and sometimes violent reason why something is happening:

The president’s resignation sparked off a lot of demonstrations all over the country.

When we want to show a slightly less strong reason we can use the verbs give rise to, provoke or generate.

The passing of the new law against smoking in public places gave rise to / provoked / generated a lot of criticism.

See you next time!