RE: Different....'THAN' ..vs. FROM

["Mark Baker" <mbaker -at- ca -dot- stilo -dot- com>]

Margaret Muwonge wrote:
>
> These days I hear 'different than' everywhere.
> Question: Is this mainstream now and OK?

It is clearly mainstream. Whether that makes it OK is a matter for whatever
authority you must answer to.

A glance at the Cambridge Online Dictionary reveals that "than" is a
preposition "used to join two parts of a comparison", which would clearly
cover "different than". In the case of "from" however, there are no less
than 14 special case definitions including one for difference. This seems to
indicate that "different from" is really an irregular construction and that
"different than" is more regular. (Regular or irregular has nothing to do
with right or wrong or even with common or uncommon, it is simply a matter
of whether a construction seems to follow the apparent general rules of
sentence construction.)

Now there are two things we can be certain about in the development of
language:

1. Irregular forms will tend to die out in favor of regular forms.
2. English teachers will defend irregular forms with the tenacity and
ferocity of a mother bear defending her cubs.

In practice, both forms are commonly understood and inoffensive to the
average ear so any effort expended on changing from one to the other (in
either direction) is wasted.
---
Mark Baker
Senior Technical Writer
Stilo Corporation
1900 City Park Drive, Suite 504 , Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, K1J 1A3
Phone: 613-745-4242, Fax: 613-745-5560
Email mbaker -at- ca -dot- stilo -dot- com
Web: http://www.stilo.com

This message, including any attachments, is for the sole use of the
intended recipient and may contain confidential and privileged
information. Any unauthorized review, use, disclosure, copying, or
distribution is strictly prohibited. If you are not the intended
recipient please contact the sender by reply email and destroy
all copies of the original message and any attachments.


^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Order RoboHelp X3 and receive a $100 mail-in rebate, plus FREE 
RoboScreenCapture, WebHelp Merge Module and iMarkupSoftware, for a total 
giveaway value of $473! Order here: http://www.ehelp.com/techwr-l

   Help celebrate TECHWR-L's 10th Anniversary starting this month!
Check out the contests at http://www.raycomm.com/techwhirl/special/contests/
Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you, happy birthday TECHWR-L....

---
You are currently subscribed to techwr-l as:
archive -at- raycomm -dot- com
To unsubscribe send a blank email to leave-techwr-l-obscured -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com
Send administrative questions to ejray -at- raycomm -dot- com -dot-  Visit
http://www.raycomm.com/techwhirl/ for more resources and info.