Writers Write Is All About Writing
Writers Write Is All About Writing

Different From or Different Than or Different To?

Is there any difference between the expressions different from, different than, and different to? Is one of the three ‘more correct’ than the others?

Different From or Different Than or Different To?

Different From or Different Than or Different To?

  1. Different from is by far the most common of the three, in both British and American English.
  2. Different than is mainly used in American English.
  3. Different to is much more common in British English than American English.

Some people criticise different than as incorrect but there’s no real justification for this view. There’s little difference in sense between the three expressions, and all of them are used by respected writers.

Source for Information

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Posted on: 22nd November 2013
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0 thoughts on “Different From or Different Than or Different To?”

  1. Jerome Kiel

    This is informative. http://alt-usage-english.org/excerpts/fxdiffer.html. Linguistics expert, David Crystal, sees the English language evolving due to the different influencers of dialogues. Although the origins of ‘English’ are, in theory, in England, it was, itself, subject to the languages of those who, for one reason or another, chose to come and live here, traders, invaders, visitors. Similarly, those who chose to emigrate to other countries from the UK influenced the languages abroad, including the large conglomerate of the United States, which has a huge variation of accents and vocabulary and which a certain Mr. Webster tried to fix with his early dictionary. So, if something is different, the to, than and from choice is dependent upon how you learned your English, from parents, schools, acquaintances and colleagues. English speaking people in England prefer to say ‘to’, so take it or leave it.

  3. george dell

    I’ve struggled with this for years so now I can rest. It’s different from {or is it different than or even different to} what it used to be–or is it?