I have listened a reporter to say this on television:

“…and it’s why the P.M. had been in Saudi Arabia.”

It seemed to me he wasn’t making a question, but he used “it’s why” instead of “it’s because”. Is it a correct, acceptable way of speaking?

Question

I have listened a reporter to say this on television:

“…and it’s why the P.M. had been in Saudi Arabia.”

It seemed to me he wasn’t making a question, but he used “it’s why” instead of “it’s because”. Is it a correct, acceptable way of speaking?

Answer

Yes. All of the interrogative words "what", "where", "why", "who", and "when" can be used in this way. In addition to asking a question, they also have the capacity to act as a placeholder for the answer to a question:

"That is what I did"
"That is where I was"
"That is why I did it"
"That is who I saw"
"That is when it happened"

Answer

It’s fine. Although rather than using because you could change why to ‘the reason’.

لا تفوّت فرصة تعلّم لغة جديدة وأنت مرتاح في منزلك. تصفّح مجموعتنا المختارة من مدرّسي اللغات ذوي الخبرة وسجّل في درسك الأول الآن!