Basic Guidelines For English Spellings
READ THESE ARTICLESMeaning of than in English:
than
Translate than into Spanish
conjunction
1Used to introduce the second element in a comparison.
‘they go out less than they did when they first moved to Paris’- ‘Jack doesn't know any more than I do’
- ‘he's playing better than when he won the title last year’
- ‘Our council tax is much higher than in larger towns if you compare the size of house.’
- ‘The third was believed to be younger than the first two and was wearing dark clothing.’
- ‘There is no easier way to change the look of a home than to put on a fresh coat of paint.’
- ‘In later years, the death rate of his patients was far higher than it should have been.’
- ‘He likes getting in on the act too and has appeared in more productions than he cares to count.’
- ‘It turned out to be better in looks than taste and in any case was described as carrot cake on the bill.’
- ‘On one occasion a female passenger leaned on him for more than just a friendly chat.’
- ‘At six weeks premature, Sam was much larger than many of the other babies in the unit.’
- ‘Which means we sold more copies in the second week of release than we did in the first.’
- ‘If you have a second child, you get more than twice the benefit for a single child, and so on.’
- ‘The sexy star also claimed she is happier now than at any point in the last decade.’
- ‘He was reviewing books at the rate of more than one a day and writing criticism of a very high order.’
- ‘Two walkers came the other way, one said it was better here than London in a heatwave.’
- ‘This is a great venue and we hope to register even more participants than last year.’
- ‘Always remember that it is far easier to withhold a service or benefit than to take it away.’
- ‘This is intended to build new properties in the Park for rent at less than the market rate.’
- ‘In the first quarter of this year, more of these homes were sold than any other type.’
- ‘It is tempting to believe the world has gone bad, that everything is worse than it was.’
- ‘He said it would be a nonsense for the roof of the main property to be lower than the extension roof.’
- ‘However much we decide to be careful, we always end up spending more than we mean to.’
2Used in expressions introducing an exception or contrast.
‘they observe rather than act’- ‘They just seem to do what they are told rather than have their own personal opinion.’
- ‘In other words, religion is seen more as part of the solution than part of the problem.’
- ‘Mr Miliband would say no more than that the final decision would be left to the council.’
- ‘There is no point to cheerleaders other than to be eye candy for the fans and television audience.’
- ‘Site owners with a primary language other than English need efficient English copy writers and editors.’
- ‘He used to get friends to ask girls out for him rather than make the approach himself.’
- ‘Now its good we can come here for an afternoon rather than be stuck indoors or in the garden.’
- ‘He was the first man to treat her as an intelligent person, rather than a sex symbol.’
- ‘Rather than being told to cut out alcohol, a man might be urged to modify his drinking.’
- ‘She says we have to learn to use anger in a positive way, rather than letting it control us.’
- ‘Watkins said he felt the outcome would be revealed in a matter of days rather than weeks.’
- ‘Rather than a game of skill and technique, golf is turning into a mere test of power.’
- ‘I try to think where we are going to be in three years' time rather than where we are now.’
- ‘There are rules if you want to find the car of your dreams rather than of your nightmares.’
- ‘I found it profoundly useful to be able to do this on screen rather than in real life.’
- ‘Far better to get a job in a hotel and learn from experience rather than from some textbook.’
- ‘We would rather be able to hear than be deaf; we would rather be able to see than be blind.’
- ‘This time, he signed for just three years and opted to rent a property rather than buy.’
- ‘It is a joy to be able to delight in somebody else's good fortune rather than be envious of it.’
- ‘What profession other than your own would you like to attempt?’
3Used in expressions indicating one thing happening immediately after another.
‘ scarcely was the work completed than it was abandoned’- ‘But no sooner had Bryansford raced into that lead, than the champions got back into their familiar routine.’
- ‘No sooner was he seated than Lily sidled closer to him.’
- ‘Hardly had I driven the car down the road than it attracted waves and nods of affirmation from pedestrians and drivers alike.’
- ‘In Siena, Gissing worked on the Dickens study, and no sooner had he finished it, than he headed south to Naples.’
preposition
1Introducing the second element in a comparison.
‘he was much smaller than his son’- ‘a single banana is a lot cheaper than a chocolate bar’
2Apart from; except.
- ‘he claims not to own anything other than his home’
Usage
Traditional grammar holds that personal pronouns following than should be in the subjective rather than the objective case: he is smaller than she rather than he is smaller than her. This is based on an analysis of than by which than is a conjunction and the personal pronoun (‘she’) is standing in for a full clause: he is smaller than she is. However, it is arguable that than in this context is not a conjunction but a preposition, similar grammatically to words like with, between, or for. In this case the personal pronoun is objective: he is smaller than her is standard in just the same way as, for example, I work with her is standard (not I work with she). Whatever the grammatical analysis, the evidence confirms that sentences like he is smaller than she are uncommon in modern English and only ever found in formal contexts. Uses such as he is smaller than her, on the other hand, are almost universally accepted. For more explanation see
personal pronoun
and
between
Origin
Old English than(ne), thon(ne), thænne, originally the same word as then.
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