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While browsing through a site on the Irish game of Hurling (yeah I know it sounds funny to USns, but that's its name) I chanced upon this (emphasis mine):
...the goalkeeper will wear a different colour jersey to the rest of his team.
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Well, the best I can say is I can understand what the rule means in the context. But it's abysmal.
I have never used different with any other modifier than from. This differs from what other people do, I know, but the first three words of this sentence is why I use different from rather than different than. Can you really imagine someone saying "It differs than the rest"???
TEd
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[joe wanders in with more boring facts...] "Different from" is the construction that no one will object to. "Different to" is fairly common informally in the U.K., but rare in the U.S. "Different than" is sometimes used to avoid the cumbersome "different from that which", etc. (e.g., "a very different Pamela than I used to leave all company and pleasure for" -- Samuel Richardson). Some U.S. speakers use "different than" exclusively. Some people have insisted on "different from" on the grounds that "from" is required after "to differ". But Fowler points out that there are many other adjectives that do not conform to the construction of their parent verbs (e.g., "accords with", but "according to"; "derogates from", but "derogatory to"). (italics added) The Collins Cobuild Bank of English shows choice of preposition after "different" to be distributed as follows: "from" "to" "than"
----- ---- ------
U.K. writing 87.6 10.8 1.5
U.K. speech 68.8 27.3 3.9
U.S. writing 92.7 0.3 7.0
U.S. speech 69.3 0.6 30.1
alt.usage.english FAQ
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I would have bet a silk pajama that in U.S. speech and writing, the percentage of "than" is vastly higher than the above-cited source claims. However, a google-search indicates the following numbers of entries for the phrases indicated:
"different from": 2,750,000 (66%)
"different to" : 364,000 (9%)
"different than": 1,030,000 (25%)
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Thanks for the legwork, tsuwm. I mo stick with different nor.
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Now I'm all a-muddled.
I think I use "different to" and I think I do this because the intent is to show/make a comparison. Hence rather than using the from from "differs from", I use the to from "is similar to", "compared to" or just "is to".
I think.
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at the risk of dragging up this ancient thread (it's all tsuwm's fault!)...
I am completely astonished at those stats. I never, but never hear 'different than' unless in the mouth of an American. This is also true of my reading unless (as does happen) my perception is flawed.
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U.K. writing 87.6 10.8 1.5
U.K. speech 68.8 27.3 3.9 perhaps the 1.5% and 3.9% are within the 4.5% polling margin of error. :)
oh, surely you're not putting any stock in the Google numbers??
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Sorry, typed too hastily! I shouldaorter say, I rarely hear/read other than 'to' as the comparitor agent. What's more, I can observe no real difference between informal parole and the clink of formal writing but.
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The Stabilizing Irrepressible March of Google Keiva 12-20-01 Milo 2-11-05 "different from": 2,750,000 (66%)______ (71%) 20,000,000
"different to" : 364,000 (9%)____________ (8%) 2,190,000
"different than": 1,030,000 (25%)_______ (21%) 5,860,000
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