"to be" - what does it mean?

[sheydenrych]

Hi guys,

Great forum - I pretty much get half of my study tips out here. I have come across in a few explanations the use of a sentence construct or similar "to be". I have no idea what it means (other than every day use eg I want to be a rock-star) and am often battling with the explanation when I come across this.

See example below - for this one I understand the rule because I am familiar with the due to vs because rule but I still am unsure what to be means within this context.

"Due to" does modify nouns, but it's typically used after the verb "to be."
For example, "The team's win today was due to better conditioning."

Any help out there would be appreciated.

[jlucero]

"Be" is one of those all encompassing verbs that means a lot of different things in the English language and has a lot of different forms (http://www.google.com/search?q=google&a ... 40&bih=805)

The simplest version is that be = exists or has the property of. In your sentence then:

The team's win today was due to better conditioning.
The team's win today existed (why? because of better conditioning).

Unless you are focusing on writing proper English, I wouldn't worry too much about the many different versions of be, but the limited misuses of be that you'll find on the GMAT. Keep a list of them of the mistakes rather than try to memorize the 20 ways the GMAT won't test their usage.

[Willy]

The team's win today was due to better conditioning.

I am bit confused with the sentence. It is possible to replace 'due to' to 'caused by'. If I do so, sentence will be

The team's win today was caused by better conditioning.

Is this sentence correct? It sounds awkward to me.

Now, if I change 'due to' to 'because of'. Sentence will be

The team's win today was because of better conditioning.

Though I am not sure but I think 'because of' modifies a clause present before it but there no clause present before 'because of'. So, I think this is not a good sentence. Am I right with the above reasoning?

[tim]

everything before "because of" is a clause. remember, just because you don't like the way something sounds that is not a reason to eliminate it..

[Willy]

everything before "because of" is a clause. remember, just because you don't like the way something sounds that is not a reason to eliminate it..

Thank you sir. I've figured out my mistake in

The team's win today was because of better conditioning.

^ SUBJECT in blue, VERB in red fulfill the requirement of clause no matter it sounds no good to me, it is correct as per grammar rules. Am I right with the reasoning? Thank you.

[tim]

that's right. don't trust your ear; take a look at what pieces you have to work with..