German

Conjunction

weil

1. because

   Ich kann nicht kommen, weil ich krank bin.

   I can't come because I'm sick.

Usage notes

• In formal writing, weil is always a subordinating conjunction, i.e. the following clause is a subordinate clause and has the respective word order (see example above). In the beginning of a sentence, weil is preferably replaced with da: Da ich krank bin, kann ich nicht kommen.

• In colloquial German, no such restrictions apply. Weil can thus be coordinating as well as subordinating. In the former case, it replaces standard denn: Ich kann nicht kommen, weil ich bin krank. The conjunctions denn and da are both relatively infrequent in colloquial German.