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'Then' & 'Than'

FangBianMian

FangBianMian

macrumors member
Original poster
Jan 22, 2010
85
0
London/Shanghai
Ok I'll start this with an apology to any sensitive folks...

I'm no language nazi and my English is far from perfect even though it's my first language, but...

I see 'then' and 'than' getting misused in here (and other places on the net) on a regular basis and wondered if US schools teach pupils/students the difference between the two words?
 
I think rather then posting something on a forum, you should take your word to the streets, and than everyone will know the proper way to use then/than!!!
 
One thing that gets my dander up is when people write "I should of done this or that..." It's should have!
 
FangBianMian said:
I see the 'then' and 'than' getting misused in here (and other places on the net) on a regular basis and wondered if US schools teach pupils/students the difference between the two words?
Click to expand...

Why shouldn't they?

It's a matter of fast typing and slow thinking.

But it's not as bad as the plural apostrophe. That is better not taught at schools or those teachers need to get re-educated.


Although English is not my first language, I just made two errors in that post above. I wrote worse instead of bad, and not instead of need. Strange.
 
There, their and they're
Your and you're

They are the only things that bug me. Don't really care about the others as I read them in my head pretty much the same.

But yeah, as someone else said, it's comes down to fast typing and slow thinking.
 
Affect and Effect.

spinnerlys said:
But it's not as bad as the plural apostrophe. That is better not taught at schools or those teachers need to get re-educated.


Although English is not my first language, I just made two errors in that post above. I wrote worse instead of bad, and not instead of need. Strange.
Click to expand...

"It's need as worse as the plural apostrophe. That is better need taught at schools..."

No, I think you were right the first time. Or close enough. :)
 
What do you expect? This is just an online message board. Nobody here is going to win the pullet surprise for their posts. Mistakes like mispeling "then" as "than" are pardon parcel with people who learn the language through talking and not through reading.

I could of made that same mistake if I hadn't learned these words by reading them. Sadly, people who don't read just can't cut the muster. Alot of people would just assume watch a movie instead of read a book and it shows in there writing. For all intensive purposes they are exposed to new words strickly by hearing them and they never learn the proper spelling -- It's simple cause and affect. Problems like this really peeked my interest and I found that there are lots of web sight's that can help.

I've come to turns with it, but the sad thing is that these loosers look like idiots. It's a doggy dog world and they're selling themselves short. One mispeled post to the internet and -- walla -- the whole world knows they don't read books. And there's no statue of limitations for Internet posts -- it will be in Google forever. What is more important then that? I don't mean that there dumb persay, just that there supposably illiterate. You might think that this is all just a mute point but I prefer to air on the side of caution. Common, if you don't think spelling matters you're diluting yourself. Don't be rediculous. Learning how to spell will go along way towards making your point. If you want to type a word and you don't know it's proper spelling just look it up on google.

I had a piffany about this: learning to spell words is a right of passage that is to important to skip. Take my advise: if you don't read you'll never be a bonified grammar nazi like me.

What can I say? People who can't spell "than" just demonstrate that ignorance is blitz.
 
I think it's just the way forums and chat rooms etc work. I also think the device used factors in somewhat. I'm using my iPhone to post this and tbh 99% of my posts are via iPhone and soon they will be via ipad, so punctuation goes out the window. If I were posting from my mac there would be a big difference.
 
Oh goodie, someone outside the US here to bash the US schooling system. How quaint. :rolleyes:

FYI: I see this happen more often than not from all people all over the world on this very site. Get off it man.


FangBianMian said:
Well, it's got to beat a forgettable Xmas wish list of tech crap ;)
Click to expand...

It's inventory, they inventory their crap in their sig. The least you could do is get it right.



Nugget said:
I had a piffany about this: learning to spell words is a right of passage that is to important to skip. Take my advise: if you don't read you'll never be a bonified grammar nazi like me.
Click to expand...

Advice. ;)
I loves me some nugget! :D
 
FangBianMian said:
Well, it's got to beat a forgettable Xmas wish list of tech crap ;)
Click to expand...

Btw, why do you think US schools are the only ones teaching English? What about the UK, Australia or New Zealand? Or Denmark, Myanmar or Chile? Or that other state up in the north, I think called Canada?

And a grin emoticon :)D) is made with a capital D. :D
 
FangBianMian said:
Well, it's got to beat a forgettable Xmas wish list of tech crap ;)
Click to expand...

It might be worth re-writing your sig as

"Do they teach the difference between 'then' and 'than' any more? "

I don't think it's limited just to the US. Lots of people make the mistake here. The worst part is that people are 'saying' then instead of than now.
 
FangBianMian said:
Somebody's hurt. Did you not see the prior apology?
Click to expand...

I'm not hurt by your arrogance. Apologies from insignificant people are about as necessary as starting threads in public forums bitching about the US education system. Usually it's the ones who lack any intelligence who tend to bash others, at least that has been my experience.
 
Bought and Brought really piss me off.

"I've just brought an iPad."

"Oh let's see"

"Well I don't have it with me"

:rolleyes:
 
Nugget said:
What do you expect? This is just an online message board. Nobody here is going to win the pullet surprise for their posts. Mistakes like mispeling "then" as "than" are pardon parcel with people who learn the language through talking and not through reading.

I could of made that same mistake if I hadn't learned these words by reading them. Sadly, people who don't read just can't cut the muster. Alot of people would just assume watch a movie instead of read a book and it shows in there writing. For all intensive purposes they are exposed to new words strickly by hearing them and they never learn the proper spelling -- It's simple cause and affect. Problems like this really peeked my interest and I found that there are lots of web sight's that can help.

I've come to turns with it, but the sad thing is that these loosers look like idiots. It's a doggy dog world and they're selling themselves short. One mispeled post to the internet and -- walla -- the whole world knows they don't read books. And there's no statue of limitations for Internet posts -- it will be in Google forever. What is more important then that? I don't mean that there dumb persay, just that there supposably illiterate. You might think that this is all just a mute point but I prefer to air on the side of caution. Common, if you don't think spelling matters you're diluting yourself. Don't be rediculous. Learning how to spell will go along way towards making your point. If you want to type a word and you don't know it's proper spelling just look it up on google.

I had a piffany about this: learning to spell words is a right of passage that is to important to skip. Take my advise: if you don't read you'll never be a bonified grammar nazi like me.

What can I say? People who can't spell "than" just demonstrate that ignorance is blitz.
Click to expand...

You misspelled grammer. :)

Some of these misspellings bother me, but only when they're close to the exaggeration that Nugget wrote. For the most part, I think a lot of us are writing as we think, and that causes some to write words as they hear them in their head. Unless you go back and reread what you wrote (it's a forum, jeez, not a college class) you're going to miss stuff like "your" for "you're."

BTW, my spell checker wants me to change they're to their in my first sentence.:confused::eek:
 
FangBianMian said:
Somebody's hurt. Did you not see the prior apology?
Click to expand...

This thread is doomed! Doomed I say!

I don't think this is the right forum for you, buddy. At MR, we don't really concern ourselves with people's grammar and spelling, as it is a waste of effort, and honestly, not our business. We're about content and discussion here - do you have anything to offer?

Anything?

Anything?

Bueller?

I'll admit, though, this is quite fun.
 
barr08 said:
I don't think this is the right forum for you, buddy. At MR, we don't really concern ourselves with people's grammar and spelling, as it is a waste of effort, and honestly, not our business. We're about content and discussion here - do you have anything to offer?
Click to expand...

The only problem is that this lack of distinction between then and than is showing up in other places. I have a manual for a piece of equipment that mixed up then and than.

It's a disease and it's spreading :O
 
TBi said:
The only problem is that this lack of distinction between then and than is showing up in other places. I have a manual for a piece of equipment that mixed up then and than.

It's a disease and it's spreading :O
Click to expand...

I definitely agree with you. As a technical writer, I see this all the time, and find myself constantly correcting silly mistakes. The thing is, I've realized that I can't do anything about it in the long run, and bringing it up at all just comes off as bitching.
 
The one I see constantly...and Nugget brilliantly used it in that wonderful post...is using 'loose' when the poster means 'lose'.

Drives me up the wall!

When I see that someone say they are 'loosing something' I usually snarkily reply that they should 'tighten it', and hopefully they won't have that problem in the future.;)
 
I agree that these forums, like most, are pretty informal. And that content is the important consideration. At least in theory, anyone who has read more than 4 threads here (or elsewhere) knows that content is, um.... sometimes hard to find... :)

However, I do wish that more people put more effort into writing 'proper like'. It is not that one can't generally get the meaning of the sentence despite the wrong use of their/there/they're and then/than and your/you're, etc. etc. It is just that because I do know the difference, when I read a post where it is used incorrectly I have to stop and reread the sentence to figure out what the poster meant to say.

Because the writer is spending less time on their writing, I have to spend more time deciphering their intentions. A error or two is one thing, but some posts are so riddled with mistakes that I won't read them. It's just too much work. And if they were asking for help, that is one less person who might have had an answer reading their request.

So go ahead and be lazy with your writing, but then don't complain if you're not getting answers to your questions.

Of course, any post that starts with an apology about their english because it's not their first language is different. It doesn't matter how bad their english is, it is better than any 2nd language I could muster.

Just my 2 cent rant.
 
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