Than
English function word From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
English function word From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Than is a grammatical particle analyzed as both a conjunction and a preposition in the English language. It introduces a comparison and is associated with comparatives and with words such as more, less, and fewer. Typically, it measures the force of an adjective or similar description between two predicates.
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According to the view of many English-language prescriptivists, including influential 18th-century grammarian Robert Lowth, than is exclusively a conjunction and therefore takes either nominative (or subjective) or oblique (or objective) pronouns, depending on context, rather than exclusively oblique pronouns as prepositions do.[1][2] This rule is broken as often as it is observed. For instance, William Shakespeare's 1600 play Julius Caesar has an instance of an oblique pronoun following than where the nominative is also possible:
Likewise, Samuel Johnson wrote:
In simple comparisons in contemporary English, than often takes an oblique pronoun, which lexicographers and usage commentators regard as prepositional use and as standard.
The case of a pronoun following than can be determined by context. For example:
In writing, than and then are often erroneously interchanged. In standard English, then refers to time, while than is used in comparisons.
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