English - Cause and Effect

Cause and effect is a relationship between at least two actions or events. The cause is "why" an action or event takes place. The result of that action or even is the effect.

Let's take a look at this example.

The two events here are:

          The man stepped on a banana peel.

          The man slipped.

In order to determine which one is the cause and which is the effect, we need to find out which event happened first. He probably stepped on the banana peel first, which is why he slipped. So in our example, the cause is the "stepping on the banana peel" part while the effect is the "slipping" part.

Most of the time, sentences contain clue words to point out the cause and effect. Check out this table of expressions:

Cause	Effect
because	as a result
since	so
reason	therefore
so that	thus
unless	consequently

Let's try it out.

 The man slipped because he stepped on a banana peel.

The clue word used is because. This means that the event written after it, "he stepped on a banana peel," is the cause in the sentence. 

Let's try another clue word.

The man stepped on a banana peel so he slipped.

Here, we see that the clue word is so. This means that the event written after it, "he slipped," is the effect in the sentence.

Here are some worksheets that you can use for cause and effect:

Reading 1 - Cause and effect (Practice)

Worksheet on determining which part of the sentences is the cause and the effect