Discussion Forum (Archived)
Guest
Within the past week I have seen or heard "different to" when I would have said "different than" or "different from". (For example, "His purpose was very different to mine.")
- One was an online comment (I can't remember where), and something else in the post indicated to me the person did not use the United States form of English.
- The other was a speaker on the radio who is from India and educated internationally but now lives in the USA, so may not always use the United States form of English.
This is the first time I've run across this usage. Can anyone tell me where it comes from or is commonly used? Do "different to," "different than," and "different from" mean exactly the same thing?
Two cents:
Propositions are often sort of superfluous, and some really aren't that different from each other. Think, "a book about India" or "a book on India." Maybe the person's native language was an inflected one, where you basically conjugate nouns, and different prepositions are then inculded in the noun ending. A bunch of different English prepositions can fall under one case.
In that language, then, the different propositions mean the same thing, even if they don't in English.
But I don't know.
A Google search (try this one: http://www.google.com/#hl=en&safe=active&q=%22different+from%22+%22different+than%22+%22different+to%22) will get you lots of information on these variations, and a fair amount of peeving.
Martha Barnette
Grant Barrett
Grant Barrett
1 Guest(s)