I spotted another howler 'then' and 'than'
@allknowing (153544)
India
December 29, 2016 5:57pm CST
To whomsoever it may concern. It is the native speaker again and this time, using 'then' in the wrong place.
"I am better then you" It should be - 'I am better than you'.
In the following sentence I have used both 'then; and 'than'
When I was in school, then I thought reading was better than writing.
Hope this helps.
4 people like this
4 responses
@allknowing (153544)
• India
30 Dec 16
That example I have given could be written in many ways but somehow I had to use the word 'then' Lazy to think of another sentence (lol)
1 person likes this
@pgntwo (22405)
• Derry, Northern Ireland
30 Dec 16
@allknowing There're more ways to skin a cat, too! :)
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@allknowing (153544)
• India
30 Dec 16
@pgntwo I know, I know.
And incidentally you might like to go here
Where does the comma (or period) go? Like, in a sentence that has a word or phrase in quotations, where should the comma go after the closing quotation? Does it...
1 person likes this
@allknowing (153544)
• India
30 Dec 16
That is a different story but some here sincerely believe that they have typed it correctly
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@allknowing (153544)
• India
30 Dec 16
@valmnz I agree with you on this. But individuals could on their own search for what is right.
@valmnz (17095)
• New Zealand
30 Dec 16
@allknowing some education systems let their leaners down 
1 person likes this
@owlwings (43897)
• Cambridge, England
30 Dec 16
Unfortunately, native English speakers are less likely, on the whole, to write correctly than those who have learned English mostly from seeing it written down. The vowel in both 'then' and 'than' (especially in the word 'than') is usually very much reduced (unemphasised) in spoken English, so that the words often sound identical. In the sentence "The red car is faster than the blue one", The 'a' in the word 'than' is pronounced exactly the same as the 'e' in the word 'the' (in IPA, it is denoted by an upside-down 'e' and called 'schwa').
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@allknowing (153544)
• India
30 Dec 16
Also, I think, Native speakers get their grounding initially phonetically and that could be the reason for this. They will write ' I use to' but not 'I used to' and so on.
My three year old nephew when asked what happened his answer was 'nothing tappened!!
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@silvermist (19701)
• India
30 Dec 16
@allknowing I do come across errors like these often. Because these are made mostly by native English speaking people,I assume they are typos.
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@allknowing (153544)
• India
30 Dec 16
They are not typos at all. They think they are on the right track
