Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Then / Than

I haven't posted in a long while as I've been busy with several proofing projects.  Now I'm back, and here's a simple one to get back in the swing of things. 

Then is an adverb related to time:  First I catch up on my blogging friends, then I clean my house.  After you finish that, then you can play.

Than is a conjunction, and is used in comparisons:  I like reading blogs more than I like cleaning.  As in this example, than often follows a comparison word such as better than, more than, other than.

I don't believe I've ever seen than used when then is appropriate, but let's not substitute then when the correct word is than.