cause与reason的区别

cause 是造成一种事实或现象的“原因、起因”，后接介词of。

    “原因，起因，根源”something which produces an effort; a person, a thing or event that makes sth happen 。

   A cause is sth that produces a result; a reason is sth that explain, or excuse an action.

eg:

Carelessness is the usual cause of fire.

reason 是说明一种看法或行为的“理由”；

eg:

You must tell him the reason why you won't accept his offer.

excuse 意为“借口、辩解”

eg:

Late again! What your excuse of this time?

区别一

表示造成某一事实或现象的直接原因或起因，一般要用 cause (后常接 of)，不用 reason。如：

Carelessness is often the cause of fires. 疏忽大意往往酿成火灾。

Friction is the cause of the match’s lighting. 摩擦是火柴点燃的原因。

区别二

若是说明或解释某种行为或看法的理由，两者可通用(其后常接 for 或不定式)。如：

There is no cause [reason] for anxiety [to be anxious]. 没有理由焦虑。

You have no reason [cause] for complaint [to complain]. 你没有理由抱怨。

注：表示“理由”时，两者虽然常常互换，但也有区别：

(1) cause 是不可数名词，而 reason 可用作可数或不可数名词，因此当需要用复数或受 a, every, many 等修饰时，通常要用 reason 。如：

I have many reasons to fear him. 我怕他是有很多理由的。

She had every reason for thinking so. 她这样想是完全有理由的。

(2) reason 之后可接 why 引导的定语从句，而 cause 不能。如：

The reason (why) I didn’t tell you was that I wanted it to be a surprise. 我没有告诉你，是想让它给你一个惊喜。

 详细拓展分析：

Reason and cause
Cause: ① 〔C〕 “原因，起因，根源”something which produces an effort; a person, a thing or event that makes sth happen
②〔u〕理由,缘故
Don’t complain without (good) cause.没有充分的理由就不要抱怨.
A cause is sth that produces a result; a reason is sth that explain, or excuse an action.

Cause使之产生某种结果的原因to cause someone or sth to be in a particular condition

There was not enough evidence to prove that tobacco was the cause of disease.
I believe that these large increases have been the cause of most of our economic problems.
It was a shock to everyone that their marriage broken up , but sally and her jealousy was the cause of it.

Reason:

① a reason why someone does sth or feels a particular way使之解释或原谅某个行为的理由
Why did you do it? I hope you had a good reason.
She wants to change her job for purely personal reasons.
I think the reason why she left him was that he drank too much.
The only reason I went was that I wanted to meet you your friend.

② a reason that explains why sth happened
The tax on fuel has increased and this is the main reason for the price rise.
Now we know the real reason why he is late for work every morning.
Each of us had reasons for wanting to leave best known to ourselves.
If you have good reasons for suspecting her, she should be closely questioned.
The cause of the accident was the fact that he was driving too fast.事故的原因是开车太快了.
The reason why he was driving so fast was late for an important meeting.他开车开的那么快的原因是他要参加一个重要的会议,时间已经晚了
The cause of the fire is not known yet.
The reason why I was absent yesterday is that I was sick.= My illness was the cause of my absence.我昨天缺席的原因是我生病了
If the doctor asks why, the computer goes through its memory and gives the reason.如果大夫问为什么计算机就从它储存的现象中查找并说明理由.(不用cause)

They don’t know the cause of the death among the old people. 他们不知道你老年人的死亡原因.
We have no reason not to study hard.我们没有理由不努力学习
Give the reason for choosing the answer.把你选这个答案的理由讲一下.
Heat is the cause of expansion of matter.热是物体膨胀的原因

Smoking is the cause of the cancer.

名词cause可接介词或 of短语; cause for后接表示忧虑,埋怨,惊恐等表感情的词: e. g:

cause for anger/regret/anxiety /complain(生气后悔忧虑埋怨的原因) cause of

e .g:

cause of the delay/the noise /the fighting/the disaster(耽搁嘈音打架灾难的原因)

reason to do sth
You don’t need to find out a reason to phone her.

We have no reason to believe him.
What is the reason for such bad behavior?