philo2009
Senior Member
- Joined
- Jan 16, 2009
- Member Type
- Academic
- Native Language
- British English
- Home Country
- UK
- Current Location
- Japan
The British use "different to" instead. ;-)
Some may..!
The British use "different to" instead. ;-)
Now that's a revelation. Is that any better than "different than?"
Well, only marginally, since 'to' is at least the correct class of word (a preposition) for this sentence-position.
Unfortunately, however, it is not an appropriate preposition, given the etymology of the word 'different'!
I partly agree with the etymology point. But I can't see how you can be a teacher and not be at least partly prescriptivist. Some people simply use words wrongly, for various reasons. If language wasn't for communication, it wouldn't matter. You can't define a usage as being right purely because its user thinks it's acceptable, or we'd all be using Humpty language.Surely if 'than' is used and accepted, then it is pointless to suggest that it is not of the 'correct' class of word.
I think that's a fundamentally bad argument. People use and accept many concepts that are wrong. That's why we have scientists, scholars and teachers.
If 'to' is used and accepted, then it must be considered appropriate, by its users at least.
That's not saying a lot. Obviously a user of some word/concept thinks it's appropriate, or they wouldn't use it.
And if we start saying how words should be used today because of their etymology, then we are stepping back into the letters columns of The Times in the 1950s.
Right, but what if teachers and other enlightened people start accepting certain forms? And this is the case of "different than" and "different to".I think that's a fundamentally bad argument. People use and accept many concepts that are wrong. That's why we have scientists, scholars and teachers.
Then you can accept it as a teacher, and object to it in your free time. :-DRight, but what if teachers and other enlightened people start accepting certain forms? And this is the case of "different than" and "different to".
Right, but what if teachers and other enlightened people start accepting certain forms? And this is the case of "different than" and "different to".
I suspect BC was being a tad facetious.hmmmm.
I agree with the point you are making but -
'other enlightened people'.
This suggests that you regard teachers as enlightened people.
Try looking back at some of the postings from people whose membership type is given as Teacher and see if you'd care to modify what you said.
In my case, of course.....;-)
I partly agree with the etymology point. But I can't see how you can be a teacher and not be at least partly prescriptivist. Some people simply use words wrongly, for various reasons. If language wasn't for communication, it wouldn't matter. You can't define a usage as being right purely because it's user thinks it's acceptable, or we'd all be using Humpty language.
(I'm not specifically referring to 'different')
'be'.It's certainly not enough for a usage to be correct that it is (be? :-?) so deemed by its user. Was the singular intentional, Ray? Nobody says (I think...?) that one person is enough to estabilish new forms in language. It usually takes millions of users these days.
There's no harm in a student learning internet slang the same way everyone else does (or doesn't). There's also no harm in offering special slang classes. But an English teacher can't be expected to have knowledge of every species of slang that a student might want to know about. It seems almost too much these days to ask an English teacher to be competent in formal English.I don't know, I wish I had learnt more about English dialects when I was younger. Like African American Vernacular, Cockney or Scots. I found myself unable to understand very simple English sentences just because they were dialectal. It's better to be prepared. Now, we have this new internet slang and again there's a lot to learn. Not because I want to use it, that would seem inappropriate to me, but because I encounter it everywhere and want to understand. And I believe there's no harm in teaching such things to advanced students, with proper warnings of course.
I am not exactly in position to comment but, if one does a search for "different than" and limit to American university webpages ones finds that there are more than one million hits with examples from Princeton, Harvard and Berkley on the first two pages of hits. Very few, if any, of the referenced usages appear to be discussing whether the usage is acceptable. I am not sure if that is proof of the accetability of the usage, but for me it suggests that "different than" is acceptable in formal AmE.philo2009 said:I do not believe that it (different than) is fully accepted for formal/careful use by anything like all AmE speakers, although I would be most interested to hear from any contributors in a position to comment...
If we're discussing which forms a teacher should recommend to his students, you may well be right. If we're discussing which forms a teacher should familiarize his students with, "different than" and "different to" are such forms.there doesn't seem to be any particularly compelling reason to recommend the latter!
If we're discussing which forms a teacher should recommend to his students, you may well be right. If we're discussing which forms a teacher should familiarize his students with, "different than" and "different to" are such forms.
"Most" isn't right in AusE for this context. That would be like using "cause" for "because".438
Most everyone likes ice cream. (I would probably have marked this wrong!)
Almost everyone likes ice cream. (This is what I thought it should be)
But then I did a search on confusing words
Confusing Words
And I read the note at the bottom, and I was almost about to write to the author to point out his typo ("almost modifies everyone etc, not most") before I realised that "most everyone" is probably correct over there.
Or is it correct in the UK too?
Most all teachers know the answer?!
Almost all teachers know the answer, surely?
Sob. (I mean I am crying)
Tim