English - than or then

English is an international language and is spoken almost everywhere in the world. But everywhere people also speak their mother tongue which is different from English, and when these people speak English they speak it in the same accent as they speak their mother tongue and that is why the sound of words differ and while writing too, the spelling is different, because more then reading people depend on what they are hearing.....But we if we think logically, English is also a funny language, where the sound of but is different from put........where no is negative while know is very much positive though both sound the same.......so you cannot blame anybody.....as long as two people understand each other, I think there is no problem..........lol

I'm not native english spoken guy but I don't think I would do the error because semantically then and than are quite different. So I guess it's just that people are misspelling. Well that's not a real excuse if people don't know how to spell words it means something rotten in educational trend :)

i think than is about between you and other side, or maybe this word is for about compareing something. and then is about after something to/into the other things. this is my opinion.

As a former magazine editor, and now an author, I can't help but cringe when I see things like that. Another one I see a lot is "I would of done something" instead of "I would have done something." I think the problem is that people say would've but spell it would of. Really sad. And scary. The future is in their hands. Yikes.

misuse of these word is common. than and then has different meaning but share the same pronounciation (homonym). maybe people are either unaware that they are two separate words, or if they are aware of the two words, they have no idea of which is which.

I have known lawyers who couldn't differentiate between then and than, there and their. I guess it wasn't given a justifiable amount of study in their younger years. You can't go by posts, because posters often don't know the difference or recognize it, since the words sound so similar. English is truly a difficult language with all the homonyms, exceptions to the rules, idiocyncracies, so just keep plugging away, teach. The rules haven't changed. People's awareness has diminished.

That's very common mistakes people makes.

well, it is just wrong to use 'than' for a comparative. i don't think the use of the english language has changed that much. those who are taught well would know the difference. most people these days learn english by themselves or from the internet and interactions such as mylot. so i guess the standard slips somewhat.

Languages are living and they do change from time to time, maybe it's a mistake maybe misspelling or it is just changing, nor that I approve or like it. The two words were together in its origins, sometime a long ago, it was decided to separate them and their uses. Let's assume also that is no joke making fun of how foreign speak English. I guess everybody has tried to emulate an accent sometime in life.

Every time I see it misused, I am tempted to correct the person, though I realize that's not a good way to make friends. I guess in an informal setting I can make exceptions, but in formal writing I am not likely to give much credit to the writer if I see mistakes like that. The are basic rules of language- things I learned in grade school. 'Then' is a time, 'than' is a comparison. That's not difficult. Other commonly misused words- there, their and they're, your and you're, its and it's, accept and except. But what bothers me the most is when people make up words, like 'brang.' That is not a word! It's 'brought.' The reason, I think, is laziness. Between texting and instant messaging, people are no longer able to spell, and they can't be bothered to check themselves or to find out the correct way to spell or say something. I think parents and teachers are not setting the standards high enough. I've even seen teachers (elementary as well as secondary) use these and other words incorrectly. If they don't know it, how are they teaching the children?

As an English teacher, you should correct them. THAN ans THEN have 2 different meanings. They might change the spelling of some words, but they are NOT allowed to change their meaning. Using THAN instead of THEN is a MAJOR mistake and you, as an English teacher, should not allow this to happen. For instance, using THRU instead of THROUGH is not a mistake, because they don't chabge the meaning of the word, it's just spelling. But is they confused THAN for THEN, as a teacher I would give them an F!

Not paying attention, don't care, no education, don't know any better, habit of using the wrong one, they have a preference over the letter A rather than the letter E, they get into a hurry...there are a lot of reasons. Mainly it's just ignorance. Lack of education or not paying attention.

More than just not being able to spell correctly or not paying attention to the grammar, I think most people (esp those who speak English)ignore how they write their sentences. To a native English speaker who probably hates English class, taking note of the spelling and proper grammar is just a pain in the neck. Besides, he speaks the language, so why bother. But to people who use English as a second language, it is very important that they get the spelling and grammar right lest, they would be laughed at.

I forgot to mention that the English language can be confusing sometimes. When to use a certain word like "then" instead of another word like "than" requires more than just memorizing the meaning or spelling. It requires sentence analysis. But the trick is they both sound alike and others can't seem to tell the difference between a short /a/ sound from a short /e/ sound. I know it is somewhat frustrating sometimes to see people misspell words that seem so common to us.

We should ask word for advice. How is you? Maybe word knows better, Gates English is known to correct it all....lol