Star The 10 Most Annoying Things in Internet Comments
Linked by Thom Holwerda on Tue 4th Aug 2009 16:32 UTC
Humor Since I think we haven't been having enough fun lately on OSNews, I decided it's time we do something fun for a change. We all have our little pet annoyances when it comes to other people's comments. Fixed expressions or comment styles that annoy the living daylights out of you. Here are mine.
E-mail Print r 9   · Read More · 175 Comment(s) http://osne.ws/gxk
Permalink for comment 377108
To read all comments associated with this story, please click here.
RE[5]: First!
by HappyGod on Wed 5th Aug 2009 04:48 UTC in reply to "RE[4]: First!"
HappyGod
Member since:
2005-10-19

They are only pronounced differently because they have been spelled differently. It's like how people put a 't' in "often", even though the 't' is long gone. It only remains in spelling. Then people saw the spelling and started pronouncing the 't'. It's still wrong.

Both "then" and "than" come from Old English "þonne" or "þanne", which regularly changes to "then" in Middle English and is fairly consistently spelled "then" (or "þen") where we would use both "than" and "then". If there's any different in pronunciation, it is solely because of the artificial distinction in spelling.


You are wrong on both counts. Pronouncing the 't' in often, and a difference in the pronounciation in then and than, are entirely dependent on your accent. In Australia we have two general accents, and they loosely translate to country and urban accents. Both accents sound similar to foreign ears.

The urban accent, and UK "received pronounciation" from which it evovled, both pronounce the 't' in often, and they always have.

Additionally, most UK accents, and all Australian accents show a clear difference in the pronounciation of then and than, and they always have.

Reply Parent Bookmark Score: 2