• diegantobass
      link
      fedilink
      663 months ago

      As a non-native speaker of english, I can’t get my head around this grammatical mistake. Than and then are completely different!

      • @[email protected]
        link
        fedilink
        623 months ago

        This is a common mistake for many native English speakers and highlights the different challenges in speaking a language and writing a language.

        In many regions of the US for example, “than” and “then” are often pronounced exactly the same.

      • @[email protected]
        link
        fedilink
        33 months ago

        I’ve noticed over the years I never used to make the mistake, but the better my proficiency, the more I started making the mistake. I think when you start running on autopilot mistakes like that are made more often

        • diegantobass
          link
          fedilink
          33 months ago

          This is a great signal to be careful about! Thanks. Something like a momebmnt when phonetics begin to take precedence on grammar. You don’t think that much when speaking and new mistakes appear.

      • @[email protected]
        link
        fedilink
        33 months ago

        native speakers make spelling errors more often than non native speakers because they learn to speak the language way before learning to spell, which means homophones can easily register as the same word in your mind for years before you even encounter the words in writing. having to unlearn things is usually harder than just learning it in the first place.

    • Aedis
      link
      fedilink
      193 months ago

      I like to believe that it’s a like a news headline “More Americans have died of ebola after marrying Kim Kardashian”