Let's get educated!

I find it disturbing that so many people online do not know the proper use of the words "then" and "than".

So: Than: introduces the second element in a comparison. i.e., I like coffee more than I like tea.
Then: at that time. i.e., I went to a party then I went home.
I have noticed that so many people have them switched in usage.
Forgive my rant but, LET'S GET EDUCATED!

For those who do use the words properly

reply to post by 1PLA1

I likez edumucation

Point taken though. You do not work for the spelling police do you?
At least you seem to want to help, rather than condemn and make fun of others, kudos.

Being a grammar/spelling nazi myself, allow me to add:

Their - plural possessive, They're - contraction for "they are" There - everything else.

Loose means "not tight". Lose means "did not win". These two words are not interchangeable.

That's enough for now.

Originally posted by kalunom
Their - plural possessive, They're - contraction for "they are" There - everything else.

This.

By far the one that annoys me the most, it's really not that difficult!

I find it disturbing that so many Grammar Nazis don't know that different people remember, recall and process information in different ways.

Many people's memories associate the spelling of a word with the sound of the word which they are thinking, hence why the spelling mistake of then/than occurs frequently, due to the fact that it's a homophone to a lot of people.

Mistakenly using words which are homophones is not an indication that the writer does not know the correct usage of the words. I know full well the difference between their/there, no/know, to/too, etc., but these mistakes occasionally creep into my writing, especially if I am distracted.

Besides, why does it really matter, as long as the message is clear ? The purpose of language is to communicate information between one person and another/others. If that information is mutually understandable, then I don't see what the fuss is about, other than intellectual captiousness.

If someone writes ''I like coffee more then I like tea'' or ''I went to a party than I went home'', then it doesn't exactly take an undue amount of effort to extract the correct meaning from those statements, now does it ?

Here is a link on proper sentence structure for the OP

Comes in handy when forming proper threads:

www.kentlaw.edu...

Originally posted by Sherlock Holmes
I find it disturbing that so many Grammar Nazis don't know that different people remember, recall and process information in different ways.

Many people's memories associate the spelling of a word with the sound of the word which they are thinking, hence why the spelling mistake of then/than occurs frequently, due to the fact that it's a homophone to a lot of people.

Mistakenly using words which are homophones is not an indication that the writer does not know the correct usage of the words. I know full well the difference between their/there, no/know, to/too, etc., but these mistakes occasionally creep into my writing, especially if I am distracted.

Besides, why does it really matter, as long as the message is clear ? The purpose of language is to communicate information between one person and another/others. If that information is mutually understandable, then I don't see what the fuss is about, other than intellectual captiousness.

If someone writes ''I like coffee more then I like tea'' or ''I went to a party than I went home'', then it doesn't exactly take an undue amount of effort to extract the correct meaning from those statements, now does it ?

I like this point.
I have a few friends who often misspell words like those. I see "loose" instead of "lose" far too often.
I had ranted about it a few times on my fb account and noticed that a few friends who really had much to add to a conversation stopped posting anything as I believe they were embarrassed by their grammar.

reply to post by Sherlock Holmes


One small rant equals continual fault finding?
'Scuse me for venting a pet peeve.