Try to avoid “seeing as”

October 22nd, 2008 at 07:00am Barry Wood

Seeing is a good thing. Sometimes, seeing is believing.

But the phrases “seeing as” and “seeing as how” are not good English.

Consider this example: “Seeing as he is a vegetarian, taking him out to Burger World was a tasteless gesture.” Such usage is generally considered substandard — or worse.

The conjunctions “because” and “since” offer much better options, although you must be careful with “since” because of its additional sense of time. Some experts frown on its use as a synonym for “because,” but Bryan A. Garner points out that “the causal meaning has existed continuously in the English language for more than a thousand years.”

That means people probably have been arguing about “since” for that long, too, so no matter which side of this debate you’re on, you’ll be in good company. Not so, however, with “seeing as.”

Entry Filed under: strict usage