All right, you go to your Spanish class, learn a thousand verb forms but still think you’re not learning enough just because you watched an Almodóvar movie and got stuck when the actor said something translated as “because” and it was not “porque”? Let’s take a look at some other “becauses” in Spanish.

1. Por: it means “because of.”
Lo hice por orgullo. – I did it because of (out of) pride.
Voy a México por los mariachis. – I am going to Mexico because of the mariachis.
Por is not normally used at the beginning of a sentence.

2. A causa de: usually followed by a noun or noun phrase, it means “because of.”
Ella salió a causa de su jefe. – She left because of her boss.
Se mojó a causa de la lluvia. – He got wet because of the rain.

3. Como: translated in English as “as”. It appears at the beginning of the sentence.

Como estaba cansada, no salió. – As (Because) she was tired, she didn’t leave.
Como no vino la maestra, salieron más temprano. – As (Because) the teacher didn’t come, they left earlier.

4. Debido a, debido a que – “due to”, “due to the fact that”
Necesitan jerseys debido al frío. – They need sweaters, because of the cold.
La población está abrumada debido a que el alcalde no arregla los agujeros en las calles. The people are weary because the mayor won’t fix the potholes on the streets.

5. Dado que, ya que, en vista de que, puesto que – All these expressions mean roughly “considering the fact that” and can be translated as “because.”
Ya que es inteligente, cree que no tiene que estudiar. – Because he’s smart he doesn’t think he needs to study.
Dado que no había muchos alumnos, la directora decidió cerrar la escuela. – Because there were few students, the principal decided to close the school.

6. Gracias a: “thanks to.”
Logró pasar en el examen gracias al empeño de su hermana mayor. – He managed to pass the exam because of (thanks to) his older sister’s hard work.

Nos vemos prontito.