jfm

Firstly, no offence intended to the North Americans, just an observation from my time on this and other forums.

I have noticed that posters from the US will type:

....blah blah more then blah blah

instead of


...blah blah more than blah blah


Anyone know why this seems to be predominant US writing trend??

I just saw it in one of the moderators notices (on the film & tv board), which prompted my question.

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The_Dude

it happens with a lot more than then and than.

try theirs and there and your and you're and lots of other things.

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"Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity." - Darrel K Royal

MacGnG

"Commonly Confused Words"

Tirian

or to and too

(Although I admit to using the incorrect then/than myself often.)

GarthInPittsburgh

I noticed people in the U.K. do it just as much... at least year 11 students do...

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i was going to call 911, but I was downloading a file

spicegonk

"looser" or "loser"

"He is such a loser/looser?"

I've seen "looser" used so much I'm beginning to think it might actually be the correct term.

GarthInPittsburgh

No, it's "loser."

Remember, there's a lot stupid people.

Sometimes, though, a word is used in the wrong way enough that it becomes the right way.

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i was going to call 911, but I was downloading a file

BRS

It may be be predominant on the internet, but it's wrong in America as well.

eyeronic

It's not endemic to the US. Just ignorance. Their, there, they're, etc...

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I hold with those that favor fire.

SaltPork

Mostly idiots do that...mostly.

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It was like that when I got here....I swear.

BentNotTwisted

I started saying 'mostly' after seeing a re-run of Alien2. There's a line in the movie where the little girl uses it. It just kills my wife when I say it, which makes it even more funny. Recently I've caught her saying it too.

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IS THAT IT ???!!!
Do you even know what 'it' is?

When the last man dies for just words that he said... We Shall Be Free

SaltPork

That's precisely what I was thinking of when I wrote "Mostly". Isn't the line, "They mostly come out at night, mostly."?

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It was like that when I got here....I swear.

Jonsgirl

Mostly is an honest to god word. Don't be ashamed to use it.

\Most"ly\, adv. For the greatest part; for the most part; chiefly; in the main.


Source: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, © 1996, 1998 MICRA, Inc.

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But it won't be today, and it won't be you.

Xell101

I'm glad most people here don't vote.

legolas

It's easy to get confused but for some reason I don't have a problem with it.

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dy156

reason:
their/they're/there
its/it's
two/too/to
are harped on in elementary and middle school alot more. Americans also overuse I when they should use me because their early grammer teachers pounded it into their heads.
then/than, like that/which wasn't a big deal, at least not in my grammer education, that's why I didn't know the difference until later in life.

omnigod

I think the confusion comes from mis-pronounciation(spelling?).

when i say "than" it sounds just like "then" unless i imphasize it.

uncle phil

how about "definately" for "definitely?"

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"We were wrong, terribly wrong. (We) should not have tried to fight a guerrilla war with conventional military tactics against a foe willing to absorb enormous casualties...in a country lacking the fundamental political stability necessary to conduct effective military and pacification operations. It could not be done and it was not done."
- Robert S. McNamara
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"We will take our napalm and flame throwers out of the land that scarcely knows the use of matches...
We will leave you your small joys and smaller troubles."
- Eugene McCarthy in "Vietnam Message"
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never wrestle with a pig.
you both get dirty;
the pig likes it.

Fremen

Doggone it, phil! I was going to mention that one.
Oh well, you snooze, you loose. <==(I'm a lose cannon, I am.)

JazzmanAl

I think the then/than part is because most people are lazy, and the 'e' is so much closer than the 'a'.

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Scuttling across the floors of silent seas.
-The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock, T.S. Eliot

Your dumber then me.

firebirdta

I think that it's definitely a lack of fundamental English mechanics being taught in schools. I am a freshman in college now, and the first "lesson" I had relating to the usage of then/than was my junior year of high school, and this was only because my teacher was getting a lot of papers from students with improper usage. I've never really had a problem confusing the two, mainly because I make it a point to prounounce them differently. In the technologically advanced world of spell-check, I hope that actual knowledge is not lost.

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Noob

its just the way the word is used like effect and affect similar words but with different meanings

gophtc

we dont learn to accentuate in America, not in public school at least
if you don't speak English as a first language, you prolly had to study it and stressed the specifics more than us. I learned more specifics while learning Spanish in high school than I did about the English language.

In school they teach you mostly spelling throughout, which are words you all know if you have ever picked up a real book before, then stop in high school right before you get to anything difficult,
vainly attempt to reteach correct grammer to you in the middle grades (realizing your previous teachers did not, by listening to everyone in the class making the same mistakes [and if you are a kid who changed schools alot and somehow missed what seems like an entire two grades, the teacher gives just you a grammer book, and makes you study it for a month until you know what you should already know] and even if you been in the same school system forever your teachers are always asking the class that famous question "didnt your other teachers already teach you ( -insert basic principle here- (correct grammer, PEMDAS, homonyms, proper grammer, multiplication tables!)?"
then you move onto literature, that no one truly understands, unless you read alot on your own. then i dont know what comes next since i havent graduated high school yet, but dont worry i turned out all right after all, i know i am smart, but i dont know who i owe that too, if anyone at all besides myself and my genes and maybe a few people that you meet, that are role models.

numist_net

its the american school system.. compare it to the british, canadian, or any other predominantly english 1st-world school system and you will see that not only can they not spell colour properly ( ), but they don't spend a lot of time with then/than, who/whom, their/there/they're, and other confusions of the language...

uncle phil

i learned more specifics, as well as the generalities, while studying latin for four years in high school...

__________________
"We were wrong, terribly wrong. (We) should not have tried to fight a guerrilla war with conventional military tactics against a foe willing to absorb enormous casualties...in a country lacking the fundamental political stability necessary to conduct effective military and pacification operations. It could not be done and it was not done."
- Robert S. McNamara
-----------------------------------------
"We will take our napalm and flame throwers out of the land that scarcely knows the use of matches...
We will leave you your small joys and smaller troubles."
- Eugene McCarthy in "Vietnam Message"
-----------------------------------------
never wrestle with a pig.
you both get dirty;
the pig likes it.

vermin

Taking a year of Latin in hi skool rilly hept my word tawkin' and letter makin'. I gots mad skeels wit' da communioncatin', yo!

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If puns were sausages, this would be the wurst.

Rubyee

I really hate when people use the word "hafta".

I think it is a variation of "have to".

More common annoying "words":
gonna
wanna
dunno
nut-uh

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Thraeryn

What gets me is the title of this thread.

"American's use of 'then' instead of 'than'"

Unless you're speaking of one American in particular, shouldn't it be "Americans'"?

its/it's, your/you're, lose/loose, et al. really get to me. I'm also appalled by the increasing number of proofreading mistakes in books, periodicals, and "official" websites. *sigh*

wry1

Speaking as an American, it's not all that hard to know when to use "then" and when "than" is appropriate.

Then: is used when describing a linear progression - first this, then that.

Than: is used when contrasting or separating - rather this than that.

Not tough at all.


Oh, and one last thing....since this is a grammatically-correct thread, it would be worth noting that the title should read "Americans' use of 'then' instead of 'than' ". Since there is more than one American involved, the apostrophe is utilized at the end of the word. If one American was the focus of the phrase, then the placing of the apostrophe would be correct.

seretogis

Nice catch Thrae.

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no one to blame always the same, open my eyes wake up in flames

Kadath

I was scrolling through the thread wondering if anyone spotted it.

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CSflim

ahhh...irony...sweet sweet irony!

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Jadey

Is that from Schoolhouse Rocks?!!?


Anyway. What about except and accept. Oftentimes I question myself with this one in correspondence at work becuase I've seen these words misused so often I've confused myself.

McKay

It's amazing how the useage of the English language is deteriorating. I am 35 years old and live in England. When I was at school, even at the age of seven or eight, if I had confused words like "then" and "than" or wrongly used apostrophe marks in my school work my teacher would have certainly corrected me. Do teachers no longer bother to correct spelling mistakes? An American poster here has stated that his incorrect use of "then" and "than" was only pointed out to him quite far on in his school life. Do people no longer read books...novels, history etc? How can even a remotely well-read person confuse and misuse such simple words? It's amazing! I don't really have a great problem with other people's poor English but I feel sorry for those who cannot express themselves properly in their own language. There is a reason for the rules of the English language.. If we all take each word to have the same meaning then we can perfectly understand each other. If we use different, incorrect, meanings for words then we run the risk of at best looking like uneducated idiots when we write or at worst being totally incomprehensible to others.

Examples:

Wash the car then go to school.
She is fatter than him.

There are twenty chairs in the room. (NOT chair's)

Only use an apostrophe if you are refering to someone's/something's property or component part.

The chair's seat fell off. (not great English but correct.)

It seems to me that many of the most common spelling, grammar and punctuation mistakes in English come from an American source. It's unfortunate that the poor quality of modern British teaching combined with the constant media bombardment of American culture has resulted in young Brits not being able to express themselves well in their own language.

I've read that a prominent American dictionary is to include the alternative spelling of "loser", ie "looser." Hundreds of years ago we realised that we all must keep to the same spellings if we are to be understood, thus the birth of the dictionary. It seems that now the dictionary is happy to become incorrect in order to reflect current trends. It looks like Political Correctness has now gone so far that we are afraid to discriminate against bad spelling!

Will American English eventually become a purely phonetically-spelled language? Do the words all have to have baby-spellings so that their pronunciation is obvious? It is moving in that direction. "Center" instead of "Centre"? "Looser" instead of "Loser" (why not add another couple of "o"s and make it "Looooser?" "Draft" instead of "Draught" When are they going to change "Circle" into "Circel?"

CJ.

Willravel

I consider myself to be very eduacted, but I confuse than and then every once in a while when typing myself. I can't judge.

Coppertop

'cause us 'mericans are fing lazy

Coppertop

No, you're thinking of the conjuction one:

"And":
That's an additive, like "this and that".
"But":
That's sort of the opposite,
"Not this but that".
And then there's "or":
O-R, when you have a choice like
"This or that".
"And", "but", and "or",
Get you pretty far.

1010011010

It's probably due to the pronunciation being basically the same in spoken English. I'd wager that many of the people who use "then" rather than "than" aren't mixing them up, so much as not having any recognition that "than" exists.

A more valid peeve (because, really, the then/than convention is pretty useless) would be the use of "that" v. "who".

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Nocturnal

I think it's an accect thing rather than a typo or a mis-spelt word. I have noticed the same issue particularly on American boards.

Phage

Ahem.

"Anymore" is not the same as "nowadays".


NO! IT IS NOT!