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Je suis en retard à cause du bus.

Je suis en retard à cause du bus.
I am late because of the bus.
From Lesson 58:Expressing purpose (pour)·French

Questions & Answers about Je suis en retard à cause du bus.

Why does the French sentence use en retard instead of a single word for "late"?
In French, being late isn't expressed with a single adjective. Instead, you use the phrase être en retard, which literally translates to "to be in delay." So Je suis en retard is the standard way to say "I am late."
Why use à cause du instead of parce que?
Parce que means "because" and must be followed by a full mini-sentence with a subject and a verb (for example, "because the bus is late"). À cause de means "because of" and is followed by just a noun (like "the bus").
Where does the word du come from here?
The expression for "because of" is à cause de. However, "bus" is a masculine noun, so it would normally be le bus. In French, the words de and le never sit side-by-side; they always combine to make the word du.
Since this lesson teaches pour, could I use it here and say pour le bus?
No, you can't use pour to assign blame. Pour (for / in order to) is used to show a goal or purpose, especially before an infinitive verb. When you are blaming a noun for a negative situation like being late, you must use à cause de.

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