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Pastimes : SI Grammar and Spelling Lab -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: The Philosopher who wrote (2845)	6/11/1999 12:51:00 AM
From: jbe	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 4711

More on different from/than. Christopher, I had not seen this post of yours when I wrote my preliminary response. You suggest many more possible uses for "different than" than Brians does. But I think I see where some of the confusion arises. In some of your examples, "than" is being used as a subordinating conjunction. For example: Please inform us if your address is different than it was in the past. If you had said -- Please tell us if your address is different from what it was in the past ...you would be using "from" as a preposition. So all NF is telling you to do here is to change the structure of the sentence so that you can use a conjunction after "different" rather than a preposition. It is not a choice between "from" and "than," but a choice between a prepositional phrase and a subordinate clause. Some of the other examples you cite do force one to choose between "from" and "than" as prepositions. One is: The American theatre, which is suffering from a different malaise than ours.. But what is the matter with "from ours"? Or, if that sounds funny, may I suggest: The American theatre, which is suffering from a malaise that differs from ours... Still, even to my ear, "than" does not sound bad in the above. We are getting used to it. It's late, however. And this Deep Question requires some sleeping on. Joan