[ti:Different 'From' or 'Than'?]
[al:Ask a Teacher]
[ar:VOA]
[dt:2024-04-06]
[by:www.voase.cn]
[00:00.00]Hello! This week on Ask a Teacher, we answer a question that was posted on our YouTube channel.
[00:12.87]Question to English teachers,
[00:16.40]What is correct to say: different from or different than?
[00:22.93]In the example below, which is correct?
[00:27.32]a) Cost of life has a different meaning than cost of living.
[00:34.24]b) Cost of life has a different meaning from cost of living.
[00:40.52]Thank you for this question. It is a good one!
[00:45.88]Some people say that "different than" is incorrect. 
[00:52.00]Your grammar textbook may say you should never use "different than."
[00:58.75]However, in American English, we use both "different from" and "different than" to mean "not the same".
[01:09.53]We use them before a noun phrase. For example,
[01:15.64]It's different from other shows.
[01:19.45]State laws may be different from national laws.
[01:24.90]Their ideas are a little different than ours.
[01:30.33]We can also use them before a clause. For example.
[01:38.21]How are these different from the ones we had before?
[01:43.15]That is not any different than what I said.
[01:48.59]Dating is different than it was 10 years ago.
[01:54.73]Both phrases have the same meaning, but their usage is different.
[02:02.75]We use "different than" mostly in spoken English. 
[02:08.37]It is more informal, and it is almost always used before a clause.
[02:17.25]We use "different from" mostly in written English, and we use it far more often than "different than."
[02:29.21]So, either sentence is okay in spoken American English, 
[02:36.01]but "different from" is the better choice because it comes before a noun phrase.
[02:43.61]We hope this explanation has helped you.
[02:48.74]Do you have a question about American English? Send us an email at learningenglish@voanews.com.
[03:01.60]And that's Ask a Teacher.
[03:06.77]I'm Gena Bennett.