American English Official Grammar Reference Book

[Paul B. Gallagher]

Deborah Hoffman wrote:

> I was also going to suggest the Columbia guide. In addition to
> grammar, it contains valuable information on varying levels of
> register, something that tends to plague a non-native speaker of any
> language, as well as on inclusive usage.

I hope the paper version is better than the one available online.

I did a cursory review of several dozen entries and found them generally 
superficial and uninsightful, missing obvious points that would be of 
interest to the reader. Moreover, the purpose seemed more descriptive 
than prescriptive, and they often took the position that whatever a lot 
of people did was fine by them, even if a literate reader should know 
better.

<http://www.bartleby.com/68/>

Example:

<http://www.bartleby.com/68/37/1837.html>
different from, different than, different to

These three have been usage items for many years. All are Standard and 
have long been so (different to is limited to British English, however), 
but only different from seems never to meet objections: She is different 
from her mother in many ways. He feels different from the way he did 
yesterday. You look different from him. Different than has been much 
criticized by commentators but is nonetheless Standard at most levels 
except for some Edited English. Consider She looks different than [she 
did] yesterday. He’s different than me (some additional purist 
discomfort may arise here). You look different than he [him]. The 
problem lies in the assumption that than should be only a subordinating 
conjunction (requiring the pronouns that follow to be the nominative 
case subjects of their clauses), and not a preposition (requiring the 
pronouns that follow to be the objective case objects of the 
preposition). But Standard English does use than as both preposition and 
conjunction: She looks different than me is Standard and so is She looks 
different than I [do]. And with comparative forms of adjectives, than 
occurs with great frequency: She looks taller [older, better, thinner, 
etc.] than me [than I do]. Still, best advice for Formal and Oratorical 
levels: stick with different from.

-- 
War doesn't determine who's right, just who's left.
--
Paul B. Gallagher
pbg translations, inc.
"Russian Translations That Read Like Originals"
http://pbg-translations.com

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