Update on Different from vs. different than

After our friendly discussion regarding different from vs. different than, Stacy and I agreed to disagree.   However, after some thinking about the grammatical structure of than, I came up with the following justification.

Than is a subordinating conjunction.  A subordinating conjunction connects an independent clause (one that can stand alone as in She has a point) and a dependent clause  (one that cannot stand alone as in even if I don't agree).  When using than, the clause (subject and verb) are often understood as in the following sentence:

Her shoes are larger than mine. (There is no verb after the subject mine because it's understood.)

The understood part is this: 

Her shoes are larger than mine (are). And this sentence makes sense and could stand with the are.

When we use than with different, it doesn't make sense and doesn't make for a good sentence.

Her shoes are different than mine are.

I don't like it as a sentence construction.  Mine are what?  If we're using a direct comparison, as in Her shoes are larger than mine are, then the comparison is size.  When we say that they're different, there is no point of comparison, and the understood part doesn't make sense, in my opinion.

I think it sounds much better to say Her shoes are different from mine.

Just another thought.  :-)

Comments

[Stacy Brice]

I realize that you're discussing "correctness," but I suspect that even *you* (as well as everyone in the English speaking world) would understand it enough if I said,, "My shoes are different than yours."

Just a thought ;>
S

[Dawn Goldberg]

Oh, I get that there's a big difference between speaking and writing. I *know* I don't speak grammatically correctly all the time.

But if I'm going to do this thing, then *I* have to understand why I think something is the way I say it is and the reasoning behind it.

It's more for me personally than for me trying to prove I'm right to you. :-)

Love,
D

[Stacy Brice]

My language was sloppy. I should have said you would understand the meaning whether it was written or spoken.

And remember, style plays into things, too. Even knowing the "correct" way to do something, many writers choose to do otherwise (myself included).

I get that you need to understand it. I just wanted to clean up what I said... errr... wrote. :)