Breakdown of Grâce à un bon système d'organisation, ma journée est plus simple.
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Questions & Answers about Grâce à un bon système d'organisation, ma journée est plus simple.
What exactly does grâce à mean, and how is it different from à cause de?
Grâce à means thanks to or because of in a positive sense. It implies that something has a beneficial effect.
- Grâce à un bon système d'organisation, ma journée est plus simple.
→ Thanks to a good system of organization, my day is simpler. (positive result)
À cause de means because of in a neutral or negative sense, often when something causes a problem.
- À cause de ce problème, ma journée est plus compliquée.
→ Because of this problem, my day is more complicated. (negative result)
You normally would not swap them here:
- À cause d’un bon système d’organisation, ma journée est plus simple sounds wrong, as if the good system is somehow a problem.
Why is it grâce à and not grâce de?
The fixed expression in French is grâce à + [noun/pronoun].
- grâce à lui – thanks to him
- grâce à mon frère – thanks to my brother
- grâce à un bon système d'organisation – thanks to a good system of organization
You can’t say grâce de here; that would be ungrammatical. It’s just a set preposition that must be learned as a chunk: grâce à.
What does literally mean, and is it something you would actually say?