'Due to' and 'Undue to'

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kapvijay
Posts: 38
Joined: Fri Aug 12, 2011 5:47 am
Location: Coimbatore, India

'Due to' and 'Undue to'

Post by kapvijay » Tue Sep 24, 2013 6:37 pm

Is it the correct usage?

Do we give undue to importance to grammar teaching?

Should it not be "undue importance"?

fluffyhamster
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Joined: Tue Oct 26, 2004 6:57 pm
Location: UK > China > Japan > UK again

Post by fluffyhamster » Fri Sep 27, 2013 7:40 am

Do we give undue to importance to grammar teaching? is incorrect - it should be just 'undue importance' (with no intervening 'to').

The Macmillan ED has a pretty good breakdown of the items concerned:

http://www.macmillandictionary.com/dict ... tish/undue - "ADJECTIVE [ONLY BEFORE NOUN]..." (i.e. with no intervening 'to'), meaning "not necessary or reasonable" (also, "excessive, too much")

http://www.macmillandictionary.com/dict ... ritish/due - note senses 1 and 2 are "NEVER BEFORE NOUN" (i.e. that prepositions or particles intervene between the 'due' and whatever follows it). Sense 3 essentially means "sufficient, enough" (cf. the "excessive, too much" above). Sense 4 is clearly predicative rather than attributive.

http://www.macmillandictionary.com/dict ... ish/due-to# (a [multi-word] preposition rather than an adjective. A one-word rough equivalent, though it won't sound as natural in most contexts, is 'from')

Lastly, have a search for the string "undue to" on Google (double quote marks produce results for that exact string). I found the following meanings in just the first couple of pages of results:

"Nothing undue (=untoward) to report"

"Undue (apparently a racehorse's name) to follow Oakleigh winning formula"

"Cuba: net access limits undue (=not due) to politics"

"Now divine honor is undue (=not due) to idols"

"He called on the minister, to exert the whole of his influence, due or undue, to stop this Bill, quoting, 'Flectere si uequeo..."

and so on.

kapvijay
Posts: 38
Joined: Fri Aug 12, 2011 5:47 am
Location: Coimbatore, India

Post by kapvijay » Thu Oct 03, 2013 7:43 am

Thank you Fluffyhamster. I understand not only the usage of "undue" but also the usage of "due" and "due to". :D

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