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Which one has right grammar please?
Why man uses tools is because he has thumb.
Why man uses tools is that he has thumb.
To me the 1st sentence appears flat wrong grammatically, to be corrected as the 2nd.
The problem is it seems the 1st is the prevalent form, even used by the most renown authors, while the 2nd hardly appears anywhere at all.
What do y'all think?
ps. And there is this other prevalent form that is out right ! vile ! - just mention :
The reason why man uses tools is because he has thumb.
You are right in your main point. The 2nd is mostly correct. But you need "he has a thumb" in all cases.
Also, the others are very common in spoken English, but should be edited in formal writing. Only sensitized folks would notice them in speaking.
But, if we are talking about formal writing, something other than grammar bothers me about all of the sentences. Can you really say that man uses tools as a result of having a thumb? That seems unlikely. Animals without thumbs use tools.
Semantic aside, again for formal writing, I have a stylistic criticism to "Why man uses tools is that he has a thumb." The main structure is "X is Y." In this case, both X and Y are subordinated noun clauses. This sentence links two noun clauses on either side of a weak linking verb. It would be better to pull at least one of the noun clauses out of its subordinate role and make one of the noun clauses the main sentence.
Besides, the main point of the sentence has nothing to do with an "X is Y" relationship.
So, semantics aside, and for formal writing, consider this instead:
Man's thumb is why he uses tools.
Man uses tools because he has a thumb.
Or "the reason man uses tools is that he has a thumb". Or, of course, "...that he has thumbs". You can say "Man uses tools because he has thumbs", or "the reason he uses tools is that he has thumbs" but to say "the reason is because..." is redundant.
I may be mistaken, but I liken this to another kind of redundancy such as "the temperature outside is hot today" and "the price of chicken is expensive". It's hot outside today; the temperature is merely high. Chicken is expensive; the price of chicken is high.
In the same way, man has thumbs; in the starting assertion, that is why he uses tools, or it is the reason that he uses thumbs (same thing). So the reason why is an abomination, and I commend your ear for abominating it 
.
I should have googled 'why … is because' already — they have discussions all over, their conclusions basically same as what y'all are saying– 'why…is because' is wrong, and 'the reason why' is wrong.
Now famous authors do use those forms, but that does not make them right, not to mention the author may just try for a colloquial effect, or the feel of a character's state of mind in turmoil.
Outside of that topic, Glenn, the concept of main and subordinate clauses is magical– your modifying my examples improves their legibility by miles.
PS. Here's something by Philip Roth ( pp 25,26 of 'American Pastoral'):
'Why his head aches him all the time is, of course, because he is constipated all the time-- why he is constipated is because ownership of his intestinal tract is in the hand of the firm of Worry, Fear & Frustration.'
Martha Barnette
Grant Barrett
Grant Barrett
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