As seems to be the case with most troublesome words, “than” and “then” have a problem: they differ from each other by only one letter. They are, of course, entirely different from each other in terms of usage, yet they’re some of the trickier typos to catch. They don’t shout a warning with red squiggly lines, and they appear and sound so similar to one another that they’re easily mistaken for one another.
Onto the definitions of the words – “than” is a conjunction used in comparisons. Think Annie from Annie, Get Your Gun. She sings a song dedicated to how she can do anything better than her rival and romantic interest, Frank Butler.
“Then” is an adverb that indicates time. In Annie, Get Your Gun, Annie may be a better shot than Frank. She recognizes the fact but then understands that showing him up isn’t the way to end their bickering. She has to humble herself (as does he).
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I have seen lots of articles where writers use “then” to compare something and I was about to think it was correct and I was learning something new. In my basic course of English I learnt to use “than” for comparison.. never, ever then but several mistaken people made me doubt.
Samicamo Stick to the rules you learned! They won’t let you down. You can, of course, break them, but that doesn’t apply to “then” and “than.”