Like many english speakers, I tend to shorten the word "because" in casual conversation to just the second syllable. "Because" is a pretty important concept, and it makes sense to want a more efficient way to express it.

In writing, I usually shorten it by just dropping the "be". Cause. "Why am I wet? Cause it's raining."

But I realized that this creates ambiguity! "Cause" already has a pronunciation: (KAWZ). As in "cause and effect". Sure, it's usually not hard to suss out the meaning from context, but it might be harder for (e.g.) someone with dyslexia, or someone for whom english is a second language. I think I originally used a leading apostrophe, like "'cause", but, I dunno, it looks silly and unnecessary? And it can lead to awkwardness with nested quotations. "Why did he do it? ''Cause I want to.' That's what he told me." See? Yuck

So to solve these problems and others, I decided to start spelling it "cuz". That can be a colloquial shortened version of "cousin", but since I never use it like that, and hopefully it'll be clear in any context that I use it, I don't foresee any issues.

I started thinking of this cuz I saw someone shorten it to "cos". While it's better than using "cause", I have to admit that I don't really get it. For me, those three letters evoke (KOS) as in cosplay, (KOZ) as in cosmos, or (KOHS), as in the abbreviation for cosine that's still rattling around in the part of my brain that barely squeaked through trig and pre-cal. It's not bad, the meaning is clear, it's just not as intuitive for me as "cuz". Yr mileage may vary 🦝

Like What You Read? Click The Bread!™