

New York City is bigger to Chicago.

Anacondas are longer to pythons.

I was taught and have for years heard people use "than" rather than "to" in those situations.

Is using "to" rather than (or to) "than" being taught nowadays?

I feel like I've slipped into a parallel dimension when I hear this form of expression.

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"Bring that over there"  rather than "take that over there" used to drive me crazy.

Does it matter if it is being taught? the fact is languages continually evolve, so it is only expected that the way you were taught to use the language will be different to the way younger generations are taught.

Yeah, just sounds like a new way of using the English language. Although I gotta say I prefer than to to (never heard of it being used this way before...). What really ticks me off is people writing "then" when they mean "than" (or "would of" instead of "would have" or "would've").

And if one is going to say "bigger to," when does one use "than"? "I'm going THAN school early today"?

I was taught bigger than and less than with mathematics...

At least I can understand "would of" even though it irritates me; they are hearing "would've" spoken and deciding it must be spelled w-o-u-l-d o-f; they are pronounced the same.  If you want to fight this, never speak the contraction.

One that gets me that I am noticing a lot lately is when people say something like, "I wouldn't do A, let alone B" and get A and B reversed.  B is supposed to be more extreme than A.  Example:  correct: "I wouldn't hug Phyllis Shlafly, let alone kiss her," wrong: 'I wouldn't kiss Phyllis Shlafly, let alone hug her."

I didn't expect this post to be a general discussion of grammar gripes, but apparently that's what it is now.

Whenever I see "would of," I wonder if they were out sick that week, were they high on weed,  or is the level of English education in the US really that bad? I ask because the people who make this mistake seem otherwise literate.


Your title is generic enough to allow this to become a discussion of the silly way they teach anything these days.

So about those school vouchers...:)

Even if it doesn't matter, can you answer the question?

It's important that they not be allowed to evolve without logic. To doesn't make sense when used in the case of than.


I personally have never heard it used, but I'm sure that now that you've pointed it out, it'll drive me crazy.

I recently heard this: "Throw me down the stairs my shoes".



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