When reading official reports or the news, you will often encounter formal ways to express cause and effect. Instead of using a full clause with weil (because), German often uses a preposition to say "due to" or "on the basis of."
The causal preposition: aufgrund
To state the formal cause of an event, use the preposition aufgrund.
| due to | aufgrund |
Because aufgrund is a formal preposition, it requires the Genitive case.
Here is a quick refresher on how articles and nouns change in the genitive:
| Gender / Number | Definite Article | Indefinite Article | Noun Ending |
|---|---|---|---|
| Masculine | des | eines | -(e)s |
| Neuter | des | eines | -(e)s |
| Feminine | der | einer | - |
| Plural | der | - | - |
For masculine and neuter nouns, the article becomes des or eines, and the noun takes an -s or -es ending. Any adjectives before the noun will take the -en ending.
| Due to the gas, the mine is closed. | Aufgrund des Gases ist das Bergwerk geschlossen. |
| Due to a toxic leak, the workers had fled. | Aufgrund eines giftigen Lecks waren die Arbeiter geflohen. |
Feminine and plural forms
As the table above shows, the genitive article for both feminine and plural nouns is der. Unlike masculine and neuter nouns, the nouns themselves do not get an extra ending.
| The authority has closed the mine due to the explosions. | Die Behörde hat das Bergwerk aufgrund der Explosionen geschlossen. |
Word order with aufgrund
You can place an aufgrund phrase in the middle of a sentence, as seen above, or you can use it to start the sentence. If you put it at the beginning, remember the golden rule of German word order: the conjugated verb must come in the second position, immediately after the aufgrund phrase!
| Due to the toxic gas, the workers had left the mine. | Aufgrund des giftigen Gases hatten die Arbeiter das Bergwerk verlassen. |
| Due to the leak, the closure is ordered. | Aufgrund des Lecks ist die Schließung angeordnet. |