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If you’re like me, then you’ve seen too much of then and not enough use of than
By Gary | January 3, 2008
It amazes me the number of truly literate writers who use the word "then," when they really meant to use the word "than." You know what I'm talking about: "I would rather run screaming from the room then see that misuse again."
I'm guessing from the frequency with which it happens that many people really don't understand the difference between "then" and "than."
The correct usage in that sample sentence should be:
"I would rather run screaming from the room THAN see that misuse again."
Using "then" instead of "than" happens so often that many people think it's correct, standard English usage. But it's not. Why not? Because one is a conjunction, the other is an adverb. They are NOT just variant spellings or pronunciations of the same word.
THAN is the conjunction and it is used in clauses of comparison:
"He wrote 1,000 more words today than he did yesterday."
THEN is an adverb of time:
"He then celebrated such great writing with an extra cookie and a long nap."
Got it? See, that wasn't so hard, was it?
And, yes, I really would rather run screaming from the room than see that misuse again -- but I know I will.
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Topics: Advice for New Writers, Writing Tips |
January 5th, 2008 at 2:21 pm
This post made me chuckle. I suppose we all have our grammar and punctuation quirks. Mine is the misplaced apostrophe. I’ve gone so far as boycott shopping in a store that had “CD’s and DVD’s For Sale.”
The misplaced apostrophe is worse than nails across a blackboard, in my book!