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Than vs. Then

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AnotherHiggins

AnotherHiggins

Technical User
Nov 25, 2003
6,259
US
In reading another thread I noticed the following phrase being used as an example:
This way never takes me longer then the other way...

I was going to ignore it and chalk it up as a typo, but then another member repeated it later in the thread. Is anyone else bothered by the use of 'then' rather than 'than'?

I'd offer this rule of thumb:
Then refers to time
Than is used to compare or contrast objects.

[tt]_____
[blue]-John[/blue]
[/tt][red]"I'm against picketing, but I don't know how to show it."[/red]
-Mitch Hedberg

Help us help you. Please read FAQ181-2886 before posting.
 
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Yes, I just want to smack people. It's clearly not a typo, those are two different fingers on the keyboard, and you certainly can't get out of it if you're writing it with a pen or pencil. :) It's obvious that they either don't care, or weren't paying attention in ENGLISH class. English class, funnily enough, also has to do with GRAMMAR, not just the language. :)
 
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Its now worst then alot of the stuff we half too put up with...

I think people make those mistakes simply because they've never read a book. They hear things said in real life, then they write a series of words that look like they would produce the spoken sounds. They never look to see which words you're "supposed" to write. They don't even know which sound goes with which word.

Eventually, we'll just be doing this.
 
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As the likely culprit of the aforementioned gaff (who else has typed that phrase recently?), I can say that it may not have been a typo, but it was definitely NOT intended. At worst it was a brain-burp. I certainly know better!


P.S. I DO care! And I got straight A's in English, both in High School AND in college!

Tracy Dryden

Meddle not in the affairs of dragons,
For you are crunchy, and good with mustard. [dragon]
 
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Me two:)


Two strings walk into a bar. The first string says to the bartender: 'Bartender, I'll have a beer. u.5n$x5t?*&4ru!2[sACC~ErJ'. The second string says: 'Pardon my friend, he isn't NULL terminated'.
 
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I halve too coats fur sail. Both minks. Bought 'em in Dodge City. Bid, please, if ewe can aFord 'em.

(refrain...": Gee, M sure are expensive...)

Bob, that's it, Bob



[blue]_____________________________________________________
If you need immediate assistance, please raise your hand.
If you are outside of Raleigh, raise your hand and say[/blue] [red]Ooh! Ooh![/red]
 
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I usually touch type when I'm at the computer. Unfortunately, my fingers have a habit of typing certain character sequences more frequently than others. The sequence "the" occurs a lot more in my typing than (almost did it again!) does "tha" so my fingers just get started on the "th" and don't know when to quit. I have a similar problem with other character sequences too.


Tracy Dryden

Meddle not in the affairs of dragons,
For you are crunchy, and good with mustard. [dragon]
 
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Tracy, the first step to recovery is admitting that you have a problem.


Two strings walk into a bar. The first string says to the bartender: 'Bartender, I'll have a beer. u.5n$x5t?*&4ru!2[sACC~ErJ'. The second string says: 'Pardon my friend, he isn't NULL terminated'.
 
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Tracy,

Based on your previous posts, I would have been quite surprised if you didn't know the difference. My fingers make stupid mistakes often, and sometimes my brain doesn't catch the mistake until it has been posted. When that happens, I sit quietly and hope no one starts a new thread about how stupid I am. [ponder]Hmmm....

I wouldn't have bothered with this thread except that this is one of my pet peeves (in retrospect I could have easily fit it into your thread by that name, but it is getting a tad long) and recently I am seeing and hearing this mistake more often.

There are some folks who just don't know the difference.

Lastly, I just have to give our new member tygressjanie a hard time for railing so strongly against this abuse (see post above from 2 Jun 05 17:13) since it was (s)he who repeated the offending phrase in thread1256-1068416, prompting me to create this thread:
tygressjanie said:
You might be able to get away with it if you said "This way never takes me longer [highlight]then[/highlight] the other way; it's shorter."
Click to expand...
[wink]

[tt]_____
[blue]-John[/blue]
[/tt][red]"I'm against picketing, but I don't know how to show it."[/red]
-Mitch Hedberg

Help us help you. Please read FAQ181-2886 before posting.
 
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When you cut & paste you run the risk of repeating errors. She did finally catch it (too late, of course).

The way a lot of people talk these days, I'm not sure you can really even TELL whether they're saying "than" or "then". They start to sound alike.

Tracy Dryden

Meddle not in the affairs of dragons,
For you are crunchy, and good with mustard. [dragon]
 
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Pardon me for trying to help...you know what, all it seems like people have done is crap on me every time I've tried to help someone in these forums. I thought the point of being nice and helping people was to do a good thing, not to get crapped on for it. What gives?
 
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tygressjanie, Please, no one is picking on you, and on behalf of the forum in general, I apologize. We are all here to have fun and within the context of this forum, anyone who makes a grammatical mistake may be called out. It is all meant in fun.

I want to compliment you for using 'myself' correctly in your previous post. Many people confuse 'I, me, and myself' and their proper use.

Good Luck
--------------
To get the most from your Tek-Tips experience, please read FAQ181-2886
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No flaming here X[flame]X.

Notice the little winking guy under the quote. I'm just teasing you. Take a deep breath and relax. This is a very friendly forum and TekTips in general is one of the most new-poster friendly sites I've ever found on the net (as long as the new-poster isn't a student trying to get someone to answer their homework questions - those situations can get ugly). But this particular forum is also pretty laid back and anyone who makes a language error is subject to a little friendly ridicule.

My point was that you didn't give the offender (who turned out to be Tracy - I know you didn't realize it at the time of your first post in this thread) the benefit of doubt. You came out blasting, writing, "It's obvious that they either don't care, or weren't paying attention in ENGLISH class."

I just found it a *little* ironic that when I said, "I was going to ignore it and chalk it up as a typo, but then another member repeated it later in the thread", that other member turned out to be you.

Sorry if I came off as a jerk - it was not my intention. I'm glad to have another member actively participating in the forum, and I'm glad I'm not the only one bothered by the 'then vs. than' problem.

[tt]_____
[blue]-John[/blue]
[/tt][red]"I'm against picketing, but I don't know how to show it."[/red]
-Mitch Hedberg

Help us help you. Please read FAQ181-2886 before posting.
 
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Tracy, I know what you mean about fingers getting carried away - I have trouble writing the word 'form', my fingers insist that it should be 'from'. I also add a 'g' on to the end of any word ending in 'in' (travelling on the traing).

On the other hand (pun intended), maybe I just cn'at tyep!

My pet peeve of the moment is 'thankyou' and 'alot'. When did these become single words?

 
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What about alright...or is it all right, or allright? I can't ever decide...I don't ever know which one I should go with, I usually try to avoid using it. I just say okay :) Or ok, or o.k. or O.K. lol
 
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Janie,

Good question. Merriam-Webster has this to say about that:
Merriam-Webster said:
Main Entry: al·right
Pronunciation: (")ol-'rIt, 'ol-"
Function: adverb or adjective
: ALL RIGHT
usage The one-word spelling alright appeared some 75 years after all right itself had reappeared from a 400-year-long absence. Since the early 20th century some critics have insisted alright is wrong, but it has its defenders and its users. It is less frequent than all right but remains in common use especially in journalistic and business publications. It is quite common in fictional dialogue, and is used occasionally in other writing <the first two years of medical school were alright -- Gertrude Stein>.
Click to expand...

So the only proscription seems to be "allright".

Cheers,

[santa]Mufasa
(aka Dave of Sandy, Utah, USA)

Do you use Oracle and live or work in Utah, USA?
Then click here to join Utah Oracle Users Group on Tek-Tips.
 
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