Comment on Stat of the day

faltryka@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

• diegantobass@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  As a non-native speaker of english, I can’t get my head around this grammatical mistake. Than and then are completely different!

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  • faltryka@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    This is a common mistake for many native English speakers and highlights the different challenges in speaking a language and writing a language.

    In many regions of the US for example, “than” and “then” are often pronounced exactly the same.

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    • azertyfun@sh.itjust.works ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      Thən məybe Englәsh shəld əwn əp to its dəsrəspəct fər vəwəls.

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      • captainlezbian@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

        If we’re doing that we should probably just go full runic

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      • diegantobass@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

        That’s a lot of schwas!

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    • dragonfucker@lemmy.nz ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      Maybe Americans should quit teaching their children dialects that damage their ability to spell.

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      • erusuoyera@sh.itjust.works ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

        You from New Zealand? Look in the mirror and say “can’t”.

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      • faltryka@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

        That’s not really how language… or humans… or culture… work.

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    • tostiman@sh.itjust.works ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      TIL there is a difference in pronounciation between those two. I’m not even American!

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      • faltryka@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

        There are many different accents across the US.

        Some of them very much pronounce the word “than” like others pronounce the word “then”.

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      • captain_aggravated@sh.itjust.works ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

        depends on the accent.

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      • captainlezbian@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

        An vs ehn though both are usually ən

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    • Manzas@lemdro.id ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      Other languages even have similar things like “jei”, “jai” first one means if, the other one is for her

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  • pyre@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago

    native speakers make spelling errors more often than non native speakers because they learn to speak the language way before learning to spell, which means homophones can easily register as the same word in your mind for years before you even encounter the words in writing. having to unlearn things is usually harder than just learning it in the first place.

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  • kernelle@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    I’ve noticed over the years I never used to make the mistake, but the better my proficiency, the more I started making the mistake. I think when you start running on autopilot mistakes like that are made more often

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    • diegantobass@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      This is a great signal to be careful about! Thanks. Something like a momebmnt when phonetics begin to take precedence on grammar. You don’t think that much when speaking and new mistakes appear.

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• Aedis@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  I like to believe that it’s a like a news headline “More Americans have died of ebola after marrying Kim Kardashian”

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• terminhell@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  Nah, just missing an ,

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  • hemmes@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    Nah, just missing an a ,

    FTFY

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