due to / for personal reasons (2025)

I am sorry to inform you that I am unable to attend the conference, due to personal reasons.

I am sorry to inform you that, for personal reasons, I am unable to attend the conference.

Which is the correct sentence? To me, it is the second because in the first sentence 'due to' cannot go with 'personal reasons'. It;s like '.., the reason ... is because ... '.

Am I correct?

Many thanks.

And very often, we don't offer up any kind of obscure excuse.
If you have a choice, don't feel that you can't do it, too. It's perfectly acceptable.

I'm sorry to inform you I'll be unable to attend the conference.

AngelEyes

‘Due to personal reasons’ is excruciating to my ears.

So, you can’t attend due to reasons, eh?

No. Due to sickness, yes. Due to apathy, yes. But not due to tautology, please.

It is not tautology. Would you rather the common use be "due to issues of a personal nature"?

"personal reasons" are a specific type of reason and are intened to add qualitative information. The point is to distinguish between generally accepted reasons that I would inform you about, such as illness, versus reasons that are of a personal nature that I'd rather not going into with my ~boss~.

There are lots of previous threads about "due to", Elaine: see here.

Personally, I still distinguish between due to=caused by, and owing to= because of:
The car crash was due to bad weather
The car crashed owing to bad weather.

For me, then, your second sentence would be correct, but not your first.

"Due to personal reasons" and "Because of personal reasons" and "For personal reasons" are all fine, in my opinion.

But unnecessary, I think. If you don't want to give a specific reason - sickness, a death in the family, you're going to be out of town, important family obligations, etc. - then why make it wordy? Just eliminate it altogether and politely say you can't come.

My radar goes off when someone gives me a pat excuse that says nothing like this one does. "Due to personal reasons" translates in my head to "I've got better things to do and I really don't have a legitimate excuse not to come but I'm trying to act really sincere in describing why I can't."

Either I like specific reasons or just a nicely worded decline.

Still, I support the correctness of the examples that have been mentioned.

AngelEyes

Your personal interpretation is close to mine, but entirely cynical.

AngelEyes said:

"Due to personal reasons" translates

in my head to

as "I've got

better

things to do that are important to me and I

really don't

may not have an

legitimate

excuse that you deem worthy for not

to come

coming to work but I'm trying to

act really sincere

impress upon you my sincerity

in

through my description

describing

of why I can't in the hopes that you will understand."

I might be implying, cynically at the end, "(despite your somewhat fascist sense that I should somehow always be in a state appropriate for working lest one of several "approved" conditions are met) -- depends on the boss.

Click to expand...

And please note, "personal reasons" are something I try to avoid -- to me they sometimes cannot be helped. I don't just regularly "quip away" my responsabilities.

Encarta Dictionary:

due (3) caused by
reason (3) a cause

Absence caused by a cause?

johndot said:

Encarta Dictionary:

due (3) caused by
reason (3) a cause

Absence caused by a cause?

Click to expand...

The context here would be better reduced to: "Absence caused by a particular type of cause." Namely, a personal one. You left out a key qualitative modifier.

TheFreeDictionary.com:

personal (1) Of or relating to a particular person; private

chajadan,

Whoa! I sense anger or something of equal passion here. I have to assume that you might have had a negative experience in your past that makes you so eager to want to express yourself differently than I might.

Because I would automatically wonder if using one of these three examples were really nothing more than phoney baloney, I would never encourage anyone to use them over just simply declining politely without added words that might be taken in a negative light by the boss.

That's all my posts have implied.

In fact, what other reason - other than personal - would anyone have to be unable or unwilling to attend something in the first place? If you're not going to state those reasons outright, then why call attention to the fact you don't want to by saying you have some but you're not going to tell him what they are?

I think this thread's question carries two issues: what's technically correct and what's logically the best choice?

I say again that all three suggestions are technically fine in my mind. Just unnecessary.

AngelEyes

Elaine Koh said:

I am sorry to inform you that I am unable to attend the conference, due to personal reasons.

I am sorry to inform you that, for personal reasons, I am unable to attend the conference.

Which is the correct sentence?

Click to expand...

Well, other foreros have nearly done this one to death, but just in case it helps, I would support those who maintain that the whole reasons thing adds nothing to the meaning. And therefore the sentence is better without it.

Using my usual rule of shorter is better, the whole thing could be boiled down to:

I regret I cannot attend.

- without, I suggest, any loss of meaning.

I remember this thread well =)

AngelEyes said:

chajadan,

Whoa! I sense anger or something of equal passion here.

Click to expand...

You're right. It's passion though, not anger.

AngelEyes said:

In fact, what other reason - other than personal - would anyone have to be unable or unwilling to attend something in the first place?

Click to expand...

Easy, it could be business related, a prior appointment with an important client, etc. etc.

AngelEyes said:

If you're not going to state those reasons outright, then why call attention to the fact you don't want to by saying you have some but you're not going to tell him what they are?

Click to expand...

Simple: you are letting them know that you have personal reasons in the hope that they will be sensitive to this, and you are not saying that you're not going to tell, but the nature of the reasons implies privacy is desired, and if pressed you simply might not be willing to tell. Some people really valued their personal privacy about anything that is in the realm of homelife, kid's issues, doctor visits, etc. etc. It's a request for sensitivity -- something that to you appears to be phoney baloney.

What seems a little weird to me is to say simply that you can't, without offering any explanation whatsoever, or expecting someone would ask for clarification.

--chajadan