Grammar... again

Chip-spitting again; and I'm sure I've mentioned this before.

I've been trawling the various e-zines looking for a home for some of my list of short stories. At the websites, there are examples of shorts on offer, just so you can see what type of stories they're looking for.

It is, of course, a little distracting: some of those stories are, well, wow! And I, like any other reader, get involved with interesting reads. Can my work compete? Yes. So, what's my chip-spit?

Then/than. Two simple words that can get me hot under the collar.

Yes, gentle reader, a published work use 'then', when 'than' was the correct word. "Rather then do it..."

Let me clarify: 'then' means 'at that time' or 'next'. Go over to Dictionary.com for a nice list of uses for the word as an adverb, noun, adjective or as an idiom.

The appropriate word here is 'than'. It's a conjunction, a qualifier, used for unequal comparison. Faster than..., better than..., worse than..., more than... See the difference?

We learn our first language from our parents, siblings, from family. How they express themselves when we are learning language skills affects how we are able to communicate later in life.

I imagine accents have more to do with idiosyncratic dialects than formal language lessons. This is how colloquialisms arise - in any language set, but especially English; it's a constantly evolving language.

If it is evolving, why am I being so pedantic about then/than? Because the words aren't interchangeable. It makes me shudder to think that such abuse of a perfectly good word should become de rigueur because writers couldn't be bothered to check their own work, to research appropriate use of a word. Worse, editors don't fix the error either. And, unfortunately, I'm seeing more and more of this same abuse.

And for those of you who argue that that's the way you've always done it, that doesn't make it right, okay? Do not trust your spellchecker, read your work with red pen in hand, and stop sneering at the other authors who use 'than' and not 'then'; they are right, and you are wrong. Get over it and move on to the correct way to use the English language.

Remember: writers aren't simply expressing an imagination; writers are teachers, too. Teaching those who read their works how to construct a sentence, a paragraph, a scene, a chapter, a whole book. Teaching those who read their works all about how to murder someone and get away with it, how to make love, to fly - atmospheric or in space, how to plant a garden, how to sculpt, to argue, how to have relationships, how to be an enemy, to drive a race car. There is no end to what a writer can teach.

And that includes bad language skills. Take pride in your work, damn it, and get it right! If in doubt, look it up!