Meet Than and Then

[theyoungmillionaire]

Sorry, not a then DT1 member or greater than new DT1 member(s) topic.

I have noticed some members who actually have some enough merits misusing than and then. They used then when in fact they meant than when opening a topic or replying to a topic. I’m not a major in English professor and not my native language, but, I hope this topic will help newbies and other members to make some improvement regarding these two commonly confused words, especially when instructing or opening a topic that is worth reading.

Searched bitcointalk about this kind of topic, didn't find any. If there are already topic like this, kindly link it here to be added.

Than and then

There's nothing more embarrassing then correcting someone's language only to realize that your correction contains its own error.

Did you see it? That harmless little four-letter word then. It should have been than. That’s one example when using than and then.

Then has two meanings.

1.  Then usually refers to time, meaning "at that time."
       Example of then meaning "at that time"


2.  Then can also be used as a transition to mean "in that case" or "therefore."
       Example of then meaning "in that case" or "therefore"


Than is used only when comparing items.  (Then is never used in comparisons.)
       Examples of than used to compare items


•   Expect it to take a little longer than usual for Electrum to be ready. (Correct)
•   Expect it to take a little longer then usual for Electrum to be ready. (Wrong)
•   I don't think it will be less than hundred. (Correct)
•   I don't think it will be less then hundred. (Wrong)
•   I would rather eat than sleep. (Correct)
•   I would rather eat then sleep. (Wrong)

So when did this pair get so confusing? Turns out they've always been that way. Linguistically speaking, they're identical twins. In Middle English, they were the same word; both spellings were used for all the various meanings. It's been a few hundred years, however, since English has treated them as distinct, which means we have to too. We could go back to Middle English, but we think that would be harder then—um, that is, harder than—mastering these.

TIPS:

Apart from thinking about the meanings of than and then, another way to get the spelling right is to remember that then is like when: both are spelled with an ‘e’ and both are used to talk about time (which ends with an ‘e’).

Than is used to make comparisons. Both than and comparison have a letter “A” in them.

Summary

These two words are very close in their appearance, but than vs. then have very different uses.

Then is commonly used to express a sense of time or what comes next or used to be.

Than is used to form comparisons between two things.
Sources:
then vs than difference
2017/06/12/than or then confusables/
words at play/when to use then and than
then than

[1714041240]

1714041240

[Coyster]

This is a very nice topic on the difference between the two words and in context were they should/can be used and in situations when they are correct or wrong
But i do not think there is actually a large number of members mixing the both words up,this(both of'em) are easily understood words with distinct meanings attached to the both of'em.
But it's a nice topic and it was an interesting read I must confess,really educative and enriching

[sheenshane]

snip-
But i do not think there is actually a large number of members mixing the both words up,this(both of'em) are easily understood words with distinct meanings attached to the both of'em.

Not large but still, having large merit who doesn't know how to used than and then ain't good to our newbies and outsiders reading our forum.

e.g. High rank I don't want to name it sorry mate.

then 268k member

e.g newbies

more then 50k BTC

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5028498.0

more then 1 value

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=139821.0

Some example that I found the forum who used then instead of than.
I see that it is like there is no difference between sr. vs newbie and even me, I got a mistake on this. Indeed, it's very informative.

[logfiles]

It's common, only that some of us get to understand that not all forum members are perfect at written English, and then we go ahead and try to decipher what they meant.

However on my Firefox, I do use an extension called languageTool, it saves me from some of those spelling mistakes and sometimes punctuation + grammar.

Like in this case


https://languagetool.org/

[joniboini]

See this mistake many times actually. I think it's just their habit or probably a typo so I don't care that much. But if they really mistake than and then I guess they need to learn the truth. Nice thread OP.

languageTool, it saves me from some of those spelling mistakes and sometimes punctuation + grammar.

This is a nice tool, I use this too alongside with Grammarly sometimes.

[Upgrade00]

This is one of many grammatical blunders that even those with English as their first language can make.
I do not see it often, maybe cause I read past the error and my brain corrects it unconsciously.
Your post and the added infographics would be very valuable to anyone who makes that mistake.

[Pmalek]

I tend to overlook the Than and Then cases of misspelling. What I really don't like are the Your and You're mistakes.
As in: Your really good with grammar.

I have also seen There and Their being mixed.
Their is a big difference between Bitcoin and other Altcoins.

[Bitcoin_Arena]

My most common grammatical challenge was the failure to make a difference among these three words Loss, Loose and Lose
but when I read Confused Words #3: Lose, Loose, Loss about a year ago I clearly started to understand and get a big difference between the words.

[bitmover]

There is also one more : them.

When you are referring to third person plural.

So you have 3: than then and them.

[TheBeardedBaby]

Just to add here, I'm mostly using my mobile to read and post in the forum. Sometimes when you write something autocorrect can mess up the text quite a lot so my mistakes are not always because of ignorance but often typos.
After I make a post, I try to go through it again and correct any spotted mistakes, but I don't do it so often as I want.
It happens sometimes to correct errors of posts I've made months ago.

[Jet Cash]

I'm leaving myself open here, but I would suggest a couple of changes.

"They ate dinner, and then they went home" is not "at that time", but indicates a subsequent action. Obviously they didn't go home as they were eating dinner.

I would have used "compared with" rather than "compared to", as the elements are of the same order. I guess this one is a subjective judgement though.

[typo corrected - sorry for that]

I think I'm superimposing some social niceties on the eating of dinner. I would have preferred to say "They went home after they had eaten dinner", as this removes the immediacy of the action.

[sheenshane]

snip-
"They are dinner, and then they went home" is not "at that time", but indicates a subsequent action. Obviously they didn't go home as they were eating dinner.

I would have used "compared with" rather than "compared to", as the elements are of the same order. I guess this one is a subjective judgement though.

I read twice your sentence as a sample above but I think there's one word you've misread. Probably it should be " They ate" not "They are.

"They ate" meaning after they eat ain't while eating, I think you misread to OP mate.

The samples are correct IMO, AFAIK samples are just simply so that ordinary people like me can understand easily. Second is with and to are subjective no worries about it.

[jademaxsuy]

Than and then are one of the words that are incorrectly used when posting here bitcointalk. As I read one of the replies here, I spotted some mistake already. Here's an example of words that are incorrectly used: "THIS", "THESE", "THAN", "THEN", "WHERE", "WERE", "LOST", "LOSE", "LOOSE". Actually, there are more words that can confuse a poster and reader here. More examples here https://blog.oxforddictionaries.com/2015/10/08/31-commonly-confused-words/
https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/usage/commonly-confused-words

[Ciscopro2000]

I didn’t realize there was so much confusion over these two words. 

[nakamura12]

I didn’t realize there was so much confusion over these two words.  

You should understand why there's so much confusion with the two words or let me say also other words like expensive and expansive which is one letter difference only but if you use it in wrong way then the meaning of sentence will also change.

[Lagonda]

English is not my first language but I don't find any difficulty distinguishing these two words. Instead, I was taught exactly as Jet Cash's:

"They are dinner, and then they went home" is not "at that time", but indicates a subsequent action. Obviously they didn't go home as they were eating dinner.

I didn’t realize there was so much confusion over these two words. 

You should understand why there's so much confusion with the two words or let me say also other words like expensive and expansive which is one letter difference only but if you use it in wrong way then the meaning of sentence will also change.

In than vs then case, it's just spelling confusing. I find no problem with expensive and expansive either but sometimes I'm confused between "bring" vs "take" or "further" vs "farther".

[sheenshane]

I didn’t realize there was so much confusion over these two words. 

Now you know mate. When you stay longer in the forum you will learn more about so many things not just about bitcoin but everything. Ain't nobody teaches that in your schools. I saw someone link this topic to help the OP on handling this error, only proves that this topic is very informative or helpful. IMO

[crwth]

The English language is a mystery yet to be solved. Lol

I didn’t realize there was so much confusion over these two words. 

There can be a lot of confusion around the English language like misplaced apostrophes, your/you're, its/it's, could/would/should of, there/their/they’re, fewer/less, to/two/too, who/whom, etc. There are tons of it, you just have to be proficient enough to really apply them.

I guess knowing that you have made a mistake is a start of improvement and correcting them means you have learned.

Reference: https://www.oxford-royale.co.uk/articles/15-common-grammar-gripes-avoid.html

[Crypto Girl]

" Punctuation saves lives "

Really sometimes we're being a "grammar nazi' and we can't help to correct people, I don't know but we're getting annoyed seeing those grammatically wrong and misspelled words. So how do you know if you're a grammar nazi?
Check THIS out.

[Retina]

Many times we make a lot of mistakes, in that case, we all make mistakes in one or the other matter of grammar that may be deliberate or unwilling to do so.
If you can use Grammarly add on(Grammarly add on perfectly use for Chrome) many things will be solved.