Than

This article has multiple issues. Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page. (Learn how and when to remove these messages) This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Than" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (November 2009) (Learn how and when to remove this message) This article possibly contains original research. Please improve it by verifying the claims made and adding inline citations. Statements consisting only of original research should be removed. (July 2022) (Learn how and when to remove this message) This article's lead section contains information that is not included elsewhere in the article. If the information is appropriate for the lead of the article, this information should also be included in the body of the article. (July 2022) (Learn how and when to remove this message) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

Look up than in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Than is a grammatical particle analyzed as both a conjunction and a preposition in the English language. It introduces a comparison and is associated with comparatives and with words such as more, less, and fewer. Typically, it measures the force of an adjective or similar description between two predicates.

According to the view of many English-language prescriptivists, including influential 18th-century grammarian Robert Lowth, than is exclusively a conjunction and therefore takes either nominative (or subjective) or oblique (or objective) pronouns, depending on context, rather than exclusively oblique pronouns as prepositions do.^[1][2] This rule is broken as often as it is observed. For instance, William Shakespeare's 1600 play Julius Caesar has an instance of an oblique pronoun following than where the nominative is also possible:

A man no mightier than thyself or me...

Likewise, Samuel Johnson wrote:

No man had ever more discernment than him, in finding out the ridiculous.

In simple comparisons in contemporary English, than often takes an oblique pronoun, which lexicographers and usage commentators regard as prepositional use and as standard.

The case of a pronoun following than can be determined by context. For example:

• You are a better swimmer than she.
  • The sentence is equivalent to "You are a better swimmer than she is."
• They like you more than her.
  • The sentence is equivalent to "They like you more than they like her."
  • The sentence "They like you more than she" may instead mean "They like you more than she likes you."

In writing, than and then are often erroneously interchanged. In standard English, then refers to time, while than is used in comparisons.