English is not my native language and something often puzzles me when I read posts in BLF. That is the use of the word “then” when comparing eg.
“brighter then the other”, “warmer then 75 degr.”.
It seems to be used rather often.
I was tought to use “than” in comparisons and “then” for time expressions eg. “before then”, “by then”, “since then”.
I have overlooked this as typos and we also don’t criticize on other members spelling on BLF.
But now I stumpled upon a scientific paper with the sentence: “…appear brighter then a black surface…” and I am more puzzled now, bringing me to my question:
Not a big thing, but is it legal to use “then” instead of “than” ?.
You’re correct. I’ll state some examples:
- Then: “I then proceeded to unscrew the bezel.” “Then she went out for dinner.” “After you finish your homework, then you can play games.”
- Than: “A Skyray King is brighter than a Balder HD1” “This is better than that” “Warmer than 75 degrees”
Hope this helps, not many people have bad grammar here so I can understand why you’ve been confused.
It continues with the use of "there" and "their" and what confuses me the most is that native English speakers/writers are making those mistakes.... or is it already standard and will become the norm in the near future? It happens so often that these are not single incidents any more.
It happens because some English native speakers are too lazy to speak and/or type properly. There are quite a few mistakes made:-
Their instead of there.
Wear instead of where.
Were instead of we’re.
Break instead of brake.
Then in England you get morons asking “can I lend your tape measure” (they mean “can I borrow your tape measure”).
The worst part is text speak on forums -
“u cn w8 till l8r 4 me to post tht light out”. |(
It’s not so much typo’s as plain bone idleness.
@Slewflash
Thanks, THAN it is not legal but rather a “bad” habit. I guess it’s down to the teachers that don’t care how the young people uses THERE language and don’t correct them in time. So the mistakes become sticky.
@Vectrex
You’re absolutely right, the sloppy use of “there” and “their” also confuses me. We also have some of these mistakes evolving in Danish. An example being that many youngsters don’t know the word for putting anything down: “lægge”(anbringen) eg. “place the book on the table” (this is an active doing). They only use the word for “the book is laying on the table”: “ligge” (liegen). I think this is normal in English where it is “lay” in both cases. Correct me if I’m wrong.
@gords1001
haha. I think I have seen some examples. Sometimes I give up and jump to the next post.
I don't know if you did this on purpose, but I'll correct it anyway.
@Slewflash Thanks, than it is not illegal, but rather a bad habit. I guess it's down to the teachers that who don't care how the young people use there their language and don't correct them in time, so the mistakes become sticky habitual.
That's using proper grammar, but I don't often use proper grammar myself while on forums. mostly just for essays I have to write up :(
All the rules of the English language are too much for anyone but a professor to keep up with and they don't always agree with each other. 
I'm not a grammar stickler but I do find the text-speak to be annoying when overdone and it really bothers me when forum responses are badly composed - no capitalization and no paragraphs being the worst offenses. I will sometimes quit reading a post and skip to the next if it is bad enough. Misspellings are very common, however and as long as the intent of the message is there they don't bother me as much.
sixty545, you're English seems very good, probably is better than many native speakers. The examples you, Vectrex and gords posted are some of the most common mistakes by native speakers or anyone else.
ohhh… the joys of grammar! 
Whats' wrong with using apostrophe's? 
Its one thing to read a poorly written post from someone whose native language is not English versus someone else's whose native language is (or at least appears to be - just because they list a location somewhere in the U.S doesn't mean they have a good grasp of the English language). If I run across such a post I usually look where the person is from (if listed), but never think badly about the person because I just don't know the full circumstances. I think one of the best things about BLF is that we welcome people who struggle with English and even encourage them to continue posting even if they are hard to understand. I know we have some fantastic members posting some very meaningful content with grammar that's hard to understand.
I myself don't care for the "text-speak" even while texting. I find no reason to abbreviate most words because you're only saving a letter or two most of the time. It just bothers me too much to send that "text-speak" stuff. People are lazy, especially Americans. Heck, look at all the American sports superstars and musicians who can't even talk in complete sentences! If they can be successful without proper grammar, why do we have use it!
-Garry
Redundant apostrophe’s piss me off.
"legge" means "to lick" in Germany. Who's licking the book on the table again? xD
@gords: Whats wrong with "lend"?
It’s the context, I lend to you, you borrow off me. You don’t lend off me I don’t borrow to you.
Eg can I lend your book is incorrect, unless I already possess it and wish to lend it to someone else. It’s just something that bugs me because someone born and raised in England should be able to speak english properly.
I guess its the same with text speak, that’s one of the things most likely to cause me to haul off and beat someone to death with their own keyboard! |(
Hehe, that's almost like the infamous "I gifted a present to someone" that made it into the BLF dictionary.
I can’t type well and my English is horrible for a native language.
I still know their refers to people, there a place, they’re a contraction of they are.
Sage advice if ever there was.
We all mess up now and again, but Garry nailed it when he said, “People are lazy, especially Americans.” If any one is interested in a “fun” book on gramer, I highly recommend Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation, by Lynne Truss.
It’s both humorous and educational.
No. Really. I’m not even kidding this time.
Then, than, except, accept, excess, access. It’s a bother trying to read a post and decipher the meaning from the context but that’s how it goes. I tried to correct a coworker once and got back”but you know what I meant, right?“. By the time you reach adulthood it’s much harder to fix. Now days, I’d much rather put up with it than either embarrass someone publicly or come across as a grammarphile.
You all know this joke, right?
GIRL #1: Where’s your birthday party at?
GIRL #2: Never end a sentence with a preposition.
GIRL #1: Where’s your birthday party at, bitch?
-Garry
These examples will never be officially accepted as correct English grammar, but you’re right that such mistakes are so common that they are practically becoming the unofficial norm. Like the example that sixty545 mentions in the OP; that’s such a common mistake that it even managed to sneak into a scientific paper.
A quick tip: If anybody is trying to learn correct English, completely disregard Yahoo News. It is inexcusably full of grammar and spelling errors.
Great 
Another thing I often read is "should of been" instead of "should have been". Really confused me at first.