How Do I Know If I’ve Used Due to Correctly?

Due to, meaning “attributable to,” modifies noun phrases, not verb clauses. If you can substitute “attributable to” for “due to” in a sentence, you’ve used the phrase correctly. If “attributable to” doesn’t work as an alternative, you need to reword.

For instance, in the sentence “The tennis match’s delay was due to the rain,” you can switch out “due to” with “attributable to,” yielding “The tennis match’s delay was attributable to the rain,” because due to modifies the noun phrase “the tennis match’s delay.” If the sentence read, “The tennis match was delayed due to the rain,” “attributable to” would no longer work as a substitute for “due to.” This is because “due to” here is misused to modify a verb phrase, “The tennis match was delayed.” Here, if you want to retain the verb phrase, an easy rewrite would be “The tennis match was delayed by the rain” or “The tennis match was delayed because of the rain.”