Then vs Than

[Aetera]

Holy shit I love you for this thread.

English major here, if that wasn't obvious already. The thing that really bugs me, though, is the misuse and/or improper absence of the semicolon. I love semicolons. The poor things don't get enough love.

...Yes, I do in fact have a favorite punctuation mark. Don't judge me. >_>

 

[Fayathon]

Heh, I've got an image for you OP, since I didn't see anyone else post it yet.

Spoiler: Spoilered for size

That said, then and than are a lot less irritating to me than your and you're are...

Shit drives me nuts.

 

[IamLEAM1983]

El Snippity Snip!

As much as I agree with the overall need to educate the masses, we have to face the facts. Most people simply don't give a damn. "It's" and "Its" sound the same, as do "Two", "To" and "Too". We're living in a society where grammatical correctness isn't as vital as it used to be, seeing as several areas of communication let egregious mistakes slide. When's the last time you saw someone barge in, in the middle of an IM conversation, and correct someone? When's the last time you met someone who actually bothered to type things out correctly in the middle of a raid in World of Warcraft?

The prevailing notion is that time is short, and we've got info to get across. Typos and linguistic or grammatical ignorance be damned, we're going to "express" ourselves!

While that's a sad mentality, it's something a lot of my younger cousins seem to share. They don't give a crap about the quality of their French or English. Why should they, they reason, when Twitter caps in at 150 characters or when Facebook encourages one-sentence-long Wall or Status updates? Why care about grammar when text-speak is so mutable and so not etched in stone?

And believe me, that's not something that's unique to the English language. The Académie Française is continually allowing Anglo-Saxon terms into the Larousse, with no other justification that they're "trending" words. It's gone to the point where Québec's stance on French is refreshingly stern, compared to how little actual, proper French you'll hear in Paris. Add L33T-speak to that and the web's constantly generated terms and memes and whatnot, and you've got the perfect melting pot for a formless and indefinite verbal sludge.

Having studied English Lit, I can safely say the Merriam-Webster has the same problem. I just can't believe that "douche bag" (yes, in two words) is in the Webster and is noted as having appeared circa 1963! "Douchebag" in one word isn't correct, believe it or not.

I know I probably sound like one heck of a snob, all climbed up on my high horses; but that's an issue that matters to me. I read and I write for a living. I'm no stranger to chat-speak and I drop the occasional LOL as much as anyone else, but I try to be as consequent as possible, to stick as close to the actual rules as much as I can.

Edit: having watched the Stephen Fry monologue, I have to admit that yes, English is much more flexible than French. Still, I don't think that allows what's clearly a set of mistakes, and not just personal preferences. Or is English actually going to come to a point where nobody's going to care about whether or not you slip an apostrophe in "It's"?

 

[z121231211]

TL;DR Comprehension is greater than accuracy.

I do subscribe to the ideology of "When you use proper spellin, punt!uation, and grammars an angel rips its wings off. However that stems from resentment of anal retentive grammar nazis who want to overcritique an error when it was something that does not actually hinder the reader from getting the point being conveyed.

Honestly as long as a word is properly spelled or at least a common typo like "teh" I can forgive instances of using a word out of context due to mistaken spelling. While good written language skills are important in a text based medium I also respect that this IS the internet. It is not a doctoral thesis, or corporate communique. So why get all worked up over someone who didnt expend the time to proofread and fails to dot their "T"s, and cross their "I"s to your level of satisfaction? I mean arent there more pressing things in the world to worry about than missing apostrophes and the like?

Edit: Does it really matter? I mean this IS the internet. You could use perfect written language skills and someone will still misinterpret what your trying to say anyway.

Has your teacher in class ever cleared the board except for one measly line segment? Yeah it's like that for grammer nazis.

 

[Scrustle]

I really wish the English curriculum here had been focused on the right things. I was given all kinds of reading and many essay writing assignmnents, but hardly any attention was given to actually SPEAKING the language. This became painfully apparent to me just yesterday, by chance, when I was reading a word problem and I realized I didn't know whether "bigger" or "biggest" was the proper word for comparing two slices of an apple. As in "I want the bigger slice" or "I want the biggest slice".

Also, I believe this needs to be linked here. I know it'll be appreciated.

Well in that circumstance (only choosing between 2 options) I would say either "bigger" or "biggest" would be correct. "Biggest" would be used when there would be a range of different sizes, where "bigger" would not be specific enough. But since there's only 2 to choose from then the bigger piece could both be called "bigger" or "biggest".

Very cool Stephen Fry video there. I'm a huge fan of him, even though I don't fully agree with everything he says there.

And also, just out of curiosity, what is your avatar picture about?

 

[funguy2121]

I do not know why this particular bug has crawled up my behind, but for the past few weeks the absolute incompetent use of than and then in EVERY forum I read has been driving me nuts!

FYI for all you posters confused about the meaning of Then and Than:

Then is an adverb of time! It is used to tell us WHEN something happens, or possibly in what order it happened.
Example: Remember games in the 80s? Yeah, I played Dragon's Lair all the time back then.
or
I opened my beer, then I drank it!

Than is used for COMPARISON. Example: Steam is better than Origin.

No offense to the foreign speakers out there, this is for the native speakers who are letting electronic media dumb them down...

Smarten up people!

People by and large don't care much for spelling and grammar when they post in online forums. It's ironic, too, since an awful lot of condescension can be found on any one of them, including the Escapist. I'm sure you're going to get a lot of responses calling you a grammar nazi. Personally, I'm not sure why you fixated on this one example when the problem is rampant. The internet exists to ensure that the public is better educated...but it's...not...working.

 

[omicron1]

"If you use then where than should be,
Then you are worse at words than me."

I don't think it's something any of us can change, though. Some people have a more tenuous grasp on grammar than others; this is universally true. They may perhaps learn, but there will always be others. You cannot teach the world to speak in perfect English, see?

 

[Sporky111]

Well in that circumstance (only choosing between 2 options) I would say either "bigger" or "biggest" would be correct. "Biggest" would be used when there would be a range of different sizes, where "bigger" would not be specific enough. But since there's only 2 to choose from then the bigger piece could both be called "bigger" or "biggest".

Very cool Stephen Fry video there. I'm a huge fan of him, even though I don't fully agree with everything he says there.

And also, just out of curiosity, what is your avatar picture about?

You've got the gist of it, but "bigger" is technically correct. "Bigger" is comparitive, and applies when comparing two items. "Biggest" is superlative and applies when comparing three or more items.

And my avatar is from a webcomic called Scandinavia and the World. The strip was about how Sweden is one of the most gay-friendly countries in the world. I'll link it for you here if you're interested: http://satwcomic.com/god-hates-sweden

 

[TheLastSamurai14]

Heh, I've got an image for you OP, since I didn't see anyone else post it yet.

Spoiler: Spoilered for size

That said, then and than are a lot less irritating to me than your and you're are...

Shit drives me nuts.

You! Why if I was online yesterday, that image would have been in MY post! I'M the resident grammar Nazi in these parts!

OT: Yeah, this kind of shit irritates me to no end.. I actually have that image saved on my flash drive for easy access. Personally, my least favorite mistake is one that it doesn't even address, though: "Would of". Would've is an abbreviation of would have, MAGGOTS. Just look at the god damn word and you'd FIGURE IT OUT.

 

[ssgt splatter]

I'm not sure if it's a genuine lack of understanding, rather it's an easy typo to make.

What he said but I have noticed this too at nausium lately.

 

[Fayathon]

Heh, I've got an image for you OP, since I didn't see anyone else post it yet.

Spoiler: Spoilered for size

That said, then and than are a lot less irritating to me than your and you're are...

Shit drives me nuts.

You! Why if I was online yesterday, that image would have been in MY post! I'M the resident grammar Nazi in these parts!

OT: Yeah, this kind of shit irritates me to no end.. I actually have that image saved on my flash drive for easy access. Personally, my least favorite mistake is one that it doesn't even address, though: "Would of". Would've is an abbreviation of would have, MAGGOTS. Just look at the god damn word and you'd FIGURE IT OUT.

Spoiler: Shut your mouth

I was a grammar Nazi before you were a twinkle in your daddy's eye, boy.

Me and TLS are good friends, don't take this seriously.