LjSpike wrote:
I'm just going to list a few of the bits of English I dislike the most, the rest of you can join in too!
1) Extra as a word vs. a prefix - Getting on an extra ordinary train I suspect would be a pretty lame thing to tell someone about, but an extraordinary train, well that'd be a story. Perhaps it was a train that was on time for once! This theme carries through with other examples such as extra terrestrial, extraterrestrial.
2) This one cropped up recently. "then" and "than". They seem to be interchanged so unusually and follow very little pattern. I'm not sure fully the difference in use they actually have (aside from the fact you don't use "than" to show the order of events ever).
3) "too" and "to". I get that the number "2" is written "two", however "too" and "to" seem to mean the same thing? It appears to be something about if its at the end of a sentence. I just use "to" all the time as its easier to just use one I find.
The difference between "then" and "than" is quite clear. "then" is an adverb or conjunction used for ordering events. For example: "I will go to the movies,
then I will go shopping." It can also be used like "therefore" to convey a cause-effect relationship. For example: "If I have enough money,
then I will buy a new skateboard." "Than" is simply used for comparing the value of two things. For example: "Bob is taller
than Sue."
"to" and "too" are very different. "to" is a preposition describing direction toward something. For example: "I will send the letter
to Mike." "too" can have two different meanings. In the first case, it means "also". "I like cake, but I like pie,
too." "Can I go,
too?" In the second case, it is an adverb meaning "in excess". For example: "That laptop costs
too much money."