Information AboutThan |
| CATEGORIES ABOUT THAN | |
| english grammar | |
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ETYMOLOGY In Etymology , it represents Old English ''þanne'', which was a variant of ''þonne'', meaning "then". It is therefore Cognate with German ''denn'', "than," and ''dann'', "then;" in Danish the same word ''dan'' serves for both "then" and "than." It represents the old Dative or Instrumental Case of the pronoun '' That ''. USAGE Usage Prescriptionists have ordained a number of rules concerning ''than'' that those who do not wish to be edited or corrected may wish to note. These prescriptive grammarians deny that ''than'' is a preposition that invariably governs the Oblique Case , although it has been used as such by writers such as William Shakespeare , whose 1600 play '' Julius Caesar '' contains the line: A man no mightier than thyself or me. . . and Samuel Johnson , who wrote: No man had ever more discernment than him, in finding out the ridiculous. In actual usage, then, ''than'' functions as both conjunction and preposition; when it is used as a conjunction, it governs the Nominative Case , and when a preoposition, the oblique case. To determine the Case of a Pronoun following "than" observing the prescriptionists' rules, a writer must look for extra understood words and determine how they relate to the pronoun. Examples:
therefore ''You are a better swimmer than her'' is, for some, a Solecism . (Others would say that if nearly all educated people say it, it can't be a solecism.)
therefore ''They like you more than she'' is a solecism. EXTERNAL LINK |
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