{"id":1204,"date":"2012-05-31T09:00:52","date_gmt":"2012-05-31T13:00:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/?p=1204"},"modified":"2012-05-08T23:52:22","modified_gmt":"2012-05-09T03:52:22","slug":"then-vs-than","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/then-vs-than\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8220;Then&#8221; vs. &#8220;than&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&#8216;<strong>Then<\/strong>&#8216; and &#8216;<strong>than<\/strong>&#8216;, these two words in English cause a lot of confusion for a lot of people, myself included!\u00a0 People often misuse them in writing (myself included!) and so I thought I would go over the difference between the two words today and see if I can&#8217;t come up with a good way for all of us to remember how to use them correctly.\u00a0 It is my hope that if you can follow along with this discussion then you will be able to use these two words better than before.<\/p>\n<p>The word &#8216;<strong>than<\/strong>&#8216; is used for making <strong>comparisons<\/strong>. You use the word &#8216;than&#8217; when talking about a noun in comparison to another noun (i.e. being: more, less, better, faster, slower, etc.)<\/p>\n<p>Here are some examples of how to use the word &#8216;than&#8217;:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The tomatoes in my garden are bigger <em>than<\/em> the ones in my neighbor&#8217;s garden.<\/li>\n<li>Beth&#8217;s grandmother is sicker <em>than<\/em> she was last week.<\/li>\n<li>It turns out my new job pays more<em> than<\/em> I thought it would.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The word &#8216;<strong>then<\/strong>&#8216; is a word used to indicate <strong>time<\/strong>.\u00a0 You use the word &#8216;then&#8217; when talking about the sequence of events or when giving step-by-step instructions.<\/p>\n<p>Here are some examples of how to use the word &#8216;then&#8217;:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>First there were three, <em>then<\/em> there were two, and <em>then<\/em> there was only one competitor remaining.<\/li>\n<li>In order to make this cake first you mix the ingredients together,<em> then<\/em> you put the batter in the oven to cook it, and <em>then<\/em> you let it cool.<\/li>\n<li>I put the clothes in the washer <em>then<\/em> the dryer.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>I hope that all makes sense, it is probably information you have heard before, so how are you going to remember when to use the right word &#8216;then&#8217; or &#8216;than&#8217; in writing from now on?\u00a0 Here is the little trick I have come up with:<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\"><em>th<strong>a<\/strong>n<\/em> has an &#8216;<strong>a<\/strong>&#8216; in it, just like the word <em>comp<strong>a<\/strong>rison<\/em> &#8211;&gt; so the two &#8216;<strong>a<\/strong>&#8216; words go together<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\">and<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\"><em>th<strong>e<\/strong>n<\/em> has an &#8216;<strong>e<\/strong>&#8216; in it just like the word<em> tim<strong>e<\/strong><\/em> &#8211;&gt; so the two &#8216;<strong>e<\/strong>&#8216; words go together<\/p>\n<p>Okay, now here is a little practice for you.\u00a0 I hope the trick above helps:<\/p>\n<p>1) I&#8217;m a better dancer <em>then\/than<\/em> you!<br \/>\n2) I think science is less interesting <em>then\/than<\/em> math.<br \/>\n3) The teacher said to put down our pencils <em>then\/than<\/em> turn in our tests.<br \/>\n4) Our friends invite us out to eat with them every now and <em>then\/than<\/em>.<br \/>\n5) Learn this grammar rule. <em>Then\/than<\/em> you will be smarter <em>then\/than<\/em> the average ESL learner.<\/p>\n<p>The answers to this exercise are below &#8211; don&#8217;t peak until you give this a try.<\/p>\n<p>If you or anyone you know is looking for more help to <a href=\"http:\/\/www.transparent.com\/learn-english\/\">learn English<\/a> there are a lot of resources like this at <a href=\"http:\/\/www.transparent.com\/\">www.transparent.com<\/a>.\u00a0 Check them out!<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>1) than, 2) than, 3) then, 4) then, 5) then, than<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8216;Then&#8216; and &#8216;than&#8216;, these two words in English cause a lot of confusion for a lot of people, myself included!\u00a0 People often misuse them in writing (myself included!) and so I thought I would go over the difference between the two words today and see if I can&#8217;t come up with a good way for&hellip;<\/p>\n<p class=\"post-item__readmore\"><a class=\"btn btn--md\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/then-vs-than\/\">Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":85,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[134956],"tags":[218673,218672,218674],"class_list":["post-1204","post","type-post","status-publish","hentry","category-english-grammar","tag-than","tag-then","tag-then-vs-than"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1204","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/85"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1204"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1204\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1209,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1204\/revisions\/1209"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1204"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1204"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1204"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}