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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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it goes without saying that the Google number are heavily U.S. biased.
oops..
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Then it follows that the USuns are highly literate. I personally can count the number of times that I have heard someone say "different to..." on a ping-pong ball. The term "to" directs, but does set up a comparison. This is what we in Alabama call "lazy thinking". And misunderstandings are at the very root of most misunderstandings. 
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> The term "to" directs
compared to what? Maybe in Merkin, but definitely not true in English P~
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I've never heard 'different to' spoken in real life; I shudder when I read or hear 'different than.' Shiver!!!!
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For shame, Maverick, you make themilum wrinkle his smoothe brain. Oh well... Look. If an Englishman or Englishmaid uses "different to" in a conversation, they, by logical necessity, omit "when compared". Sure, this omission is perfectly acceptable if that is a convention of your own particular offshoot of the English language, but remember, if you choose to use quaint phrasing when you speak, then you must be aware that your proviencialism might be thought odd by the vanguards of our language today. That is, we who contribute to the vast files of Google. And notice, if you will, the connectors "than" and "from" are lingually self-sufficient as directors, and require no such secret omissions or implied additions. How nice, how American.
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The usage causing all the brouhaha is no different to that routinely used by most Aotearoans.
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Hey Vernon, who are the Aotearoans? And why do they speak funny?
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the number of times that I have heard someone say "different to..."
on a ping-pong ball.
I certainly have never heard anyone say "different to..." on a ping-pong ball.
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"Young Faldage, placing his hand on a ping-pong ball, said, 'My serve might seem different to most players, but its effect is apparent to all who play against me.' "
There, Faldage. You have now officially heard someone say 'different to' on a ping-pong ball.
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> we who contribute to the vast files of Google
It's a numbers game, Milo, true, but then the barbarians always are more numerous :)
and by that token American will soon be supplanted by Spanish in its own heartland, and Chinese in the rest of the world... but it's no good all-y'all snivelling, you can't come back in, we took plenty of care to export all our religious nutters back in the 1600s :)
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...but then the barbarians always are more numerous. :)So true, Maverick, so true. Barbarians are lots of things; smelly, couthless, and recalcitrant. But there is one thing that by their very nature barbarians can't possibly be, and that is decadent. ... but it's no good all-y'all snivelling, you can't come back in, we took plenty of care to export all our religious nutters back in the 1600s. :) And the seed you planted in America in the 1600s, brought forth a bloom that saved a World from Hirohito, Stalin and Hitler. But sadly, the days dwindle down, and now we, with all our virtue, can't save you from yourselves. 
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> now we, with all our virtue, can't save you from yourselves
That's mighty reassuring Milo - I could easily choke on that much virtue :)
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