#different than

“Much different than” or “very different from”?

I have one of the rarest combos with red hair AND blue eyes, so I’m also loving and celebrating my uniqueness today!

donald trump ain’t no different than Bernie Madoff either

ponzi schemeing

and  all these associates

and even Stevie Wonder can see whats up.

you can’t tap dance with russia and then talk all wreckless  about other folks.

things don’t add  up at all.

elephant in the room says

that no tax return

and all these schemers jacking money left and right

and using all these expenses on the tax dollar

and dime.this aint legal at all.

Madoff was doing what he…

Daring to Be Different Than (but Maybe Not Against)

If you are a grammar purist of delicate sensibilities, then prepare for a shock: “Different than” sometimes works better than “different from.”

Traditional grammar rules decree that only “from” may follow “different.” So F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote that the very rich “are different from you and me.”

But what if Fitzgerald had written, “The very rich are different from what I had expected”? The preposition “from” easily handles a noun or two, such as “you and me.” It has a harder time with a full clause, such as “I had expected.”

Wouldn’t “than” — because it can be a conjunction as well as a preposition — sharpen and shorten the sentence: “Rich people are different than I had expected”?

No, says the Associated Press Stylebook: “Different,” it declares, “takes the preposition from, not than.”

Maybe, says The Chicago Manual of Style: “When a dependent clause follows different, the conjunction than is a defensible substitute for from what.”

If you're clutching your pearls in horror, then consider this: In the 17th century, some writers tried “different against.”

Hmm. “The very rich are different against you and me.” It certainly kicks up the contrast, doesn’t it? — Photo of noted rich person Bill Gates by World Economic Forum (CC BY 2.0), via Wikimedia Commons

Word Confusion:    Different From vs    Different Than vs    Different To

This Word Confusion is a tricky bugger. The different to is pretty simple, and being a British preference, it’s not a confusion American authors are likely to run into. Unless, of course, one of our characters is English. Mmmm, nothing like complicating things up *grin*.

Different from and different thanare MUCH more difficult. I spend more time exploring, tasting, trying out different…

Word Confusion: Different From vs Different Than vs Different To

by Kathy Davie

This Word Confusion is a tricky bugger. The different to is pretty simple, and being a British preference, it’s not a confusion American authors are likely to run into. Unless, of course, one of our characters is English. Mmmm, nothing like complicating things up *grin*.

Different from and different thanare MUCH more difficult. I spend more time exploring, tasting, trying out…