Having another native language than English (Swiss German in fact), i wonder at the usage of "than" vs. "then" in this board (and others...).

Is it correct today to say "bigger then...", is it mere analphabetism or laziness?

Help, ye English speaking!

:-)= Greybeard

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All about BOINC: BOINC-Wiki (by Paul D. Buck)

Having another native language than English (Swiss German in fact), i wonder at the usage of "than" vs. "then" in this board (and others...).

Is it correct today to say "bigger then...", is it mere analphabetism or laziness?

Help, ye English speaking!

:-)= Greybeard

Hi
It is bigger than and then.....are both fine and correct
e.g
If it were bigger then we could get a truck to move it.
If it were bigger than this one then I would buy it.

Both are correct but context is crucial as they mean quite different things.

Hope that helps.

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Having another native language than English (Swiss German in fact), i wonder at the usage of "than" vs. "then" in this board (and others...).

Is it correct today to say "bigger then...", is it mere analphabetism or laziness?

Help, ye English speaking!

:-)= Greybeard

Barbarossa

Some some silly examples (hopefully correct).

I've not seen that usage, then again, perhaps I was not looking properly. Your recent average credit is much bigger than mine.

If that box is so much bigger than this box, [i]then[i] why is so easy to carry?

I was never very good at the 'science' of what we in britland laughingly call english, it's such a mixture of lots of other languages, that it's just crazy. I only speak it and write it, oblivious of why or how sentences work, I definitely can't explain it.

Tally ho

Ken Phillips

[edit]
Damn you Ian! Beat me to it; brilliant examples though, I didn't think of your first one. :)
[/edit]

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Ken Phillips

BOINC question? Look here



"The beginning is the most important part of the work." - Plato

Is it correct today to say "bigger then...", is it mere analphabetism or laziness?

Neither of the two, as lazy people WILL not write and analphabets CAN'T write.

But seriously: it is the same as in all our german boards: if you take the spelling too serious you surely won't have much time to enjoy the information behind the posts or the user community itself. So if the people in Germany, Switzerland and Austria even have problems with their native language, what would one expect to find in an international board?

I'd say: take it easy, this is not a spelling contest but just a board for everyone.

Regards,

Christoph

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"I know that you believe you understand what you think I said, but I'm not sure you realize that what you heard is not what I meant." R.M. Nixon

Having another native language than English (Swiss German in fact), i wonder at the usage of "than" vs. "then" in this board (and others...).

Is it correct today to say "bigger then...", is it mere analphabetism or laziness?

Help, ye English speaking!

:-)= Greybeard

Barbarossa

Some some silly examples (hopefully correct).

I've not seen that usage, then again, perhaps I was not looking properly. Your recent average credit is much bigger than mine.

If that box is so much bigger than this box, [i]then[i] why is so easy to carry?

I was never very good at the 'science' of what we in britland laughingly call english, it's such a mixture of lots of other languages, that it's just crazy. I only speak it and write it, oblivious of why or how sentences work, I definitely can't explain it.

Tally ho

Ken Phillips

[edit]
Damn you Ian! Beat me to it, brilliant examples though, I didn't think of your first one. :)
[/edit]

LOL!. Hello Ken. Nice examples by the way! English is so beautiful - hmmmmm that's not English LOL!

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barbarossa:

"Than" is used primarily in comparisons. Think: greater than..., less than..., faster than..., etc.

"Then" is used in English, sometimes, as a replacement for a comma. Using Tigher's xample "If it were bigger then we could get a truck to move it." could also be "If it were bigger, we could get a truck to move it." The easiest way to remember which to use, is to think back to the FORTRAN programming language's "if-then" loops: "If xxx, then yyy, else zzz". In other words, IF you have a phrase beginning with "if" at the start of the sentence, THEN you should use the word "then" to describe the action dependent upon the beginning clause.

If this answer is unclear, then please feel free to ignore it.

C

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Join Team MacNN

Yeah C that's all cool. Strange....K&R would turn in their graves on C using Fortran ...hehehe.
An observation not criticism.....The "then" being replaced by comma is not too hot in UK, The comma is more than a pause. For instance. The cat, which was quite large, sat on the mat. This is correct....more of a qualification plus potential pause. End of Observation.

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Is it correct today to say "bigger then...", is it mere analphabetism or laziness?

Ignorance and laziness.... I deal with 'professionals' every day here in the US whose memos and correspondence contain so many misspellings, grammatical errors, and words used out of context that it's almost frightening. I'm pushing 50 years old and I wouldn't have made it out of the 4th grade with things they commonly use every day. A couple of my favorites that are common are:

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prolly = probably (A lawyer uses this all the time when writing me)
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"the admin could care less" (So then he does care some? If he couldn't care less then all hope of him caring at all is gone)
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"go on the innernet and look for it" (The lead network tech at a local company religiously refers to it this way... maybe that's the inside of the Internet?)
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Remember, gang.... spelling is very impotent.

Thx lads!

Of course I know the use of "than" and "then" well - such as I learned it and as it is well described in some answers.

I just happened to see several postings with the usage of "then" when it was actually meant as the comparative "than". And I therefore wondered if the rules had changed in the last years...

Christoph: Ich kann bestens damit leben. Ich kenne auch das eine oder andere deutschsprachige Board (war sogar Mod) und habe meine Erfahrungen mit dem Umgang gewisser Teilnehmer mit ihrer Muttersprache. Das geht manchmal bis zur schieren Unlesbarkeit.
Hätte mich übrigens gewundert, wenn im englischsprachigen Raum eine derart stupide Reform stattgefunden hätte wie bei uns ;-)=

Scarecrow: LOL!

Greetz
:-)= Greybeard

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All about BOINC: BOINC-Wiki (by Paul D. Buck)