Timeline for Is it possible to start a grammatically-correct English sentence with the word "Than"?
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
15 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dec 4, 2016 at 18:14 | comment | added | jaxter | @HotLicks I believe you may have meant, "Than Maugham a construction that few people would use other." | |
| Dec 3, 2014 at 10:36 | comment | added | psmears | It's not just Maugham, Shakespeare was at it as well - e.g. Cymbeline (IV, 4): "Than be so / better to cease to be."; Richard III (III, 4): "Than my Lord Hastings no man might be bolder". | |
| Dec 2, 2014 at 21:18 | vote | accept | dreftymac | ||
| Dec 2, 2014 at 19:48 | comment | added | Hot Licks | Well, if all else fails: "Than" is a word that is rarely used to start a sentence. | |
| Dec 2, 2014 at 16:58 | comment | added | Justin Greer | @psusi You're right: Just because someone can figure something out doesn't make it grammatically correct. But someone finding something confusing doesn't make it grammatically incorrect, either. | |
| Dec 2, 2014 at 15:33 | comment | added | psusi | It sounds most unnatural to me; I had to read it three times before I could figure out what the hell he meant. While you can write things like this, or "most upset am I" and people can probably figure out what you mean, that does not make it grammatically correct. | |
| Dec 2, 2014 at 13:06 | comment | added | fdb | @HotLicks. "Than" only works in conjunction with an explicit or implicit comparative. That is why Maugham's example ("Than....more genuine") is correct, while yours ("Than....???") is wrong. | |
| Dec 2, 2014 at 10:06 | comment | added | Jon Hanna | @HotLicks I will quite happily question the syntax of something by Maugham, if its syntax left anything to question. | |
| Dec 2, 2014 at 10:05 | comment | added | PLL | @HotLicks: I try to explain in my answer below why some examples of this approach work better than others. | |
| Dec 2, 2014 at 7:26 | comment | added | Brian M. Scott | @HotLicks: I emphatically disagree. I consider it a perfectly acceptable (albeit highly marked) stylistic choice. (I’m also fairly sure that I have actually used the construction.) | |
| Dec 2, 2014 at 4:26 | comment | added | Panzercrisis | "Than to have never tried, I say, it would be far better to have tried and failed." Well, it does sound a bit quaint and literary, but it's very much an example of modern English. +1 I would never have thought of this, but it is self-evident. | |
| Dec 2, 2014 at 2:32 | comment | added | Hot Licks | If anyone other than Maugham had written it, the propriety of its syntax would be seriously questioned. | |
| Dec 2, 2014 at 2:17 | comment | added | tchrist♦ | @HotLicks So what? It meets the criterion, and is published literature no less. There are a lot of constructions few people would use; most people don’t avail themselves of most of what English has to offer. Again, I ask you: so what? | |
| Dec 2, 2014 at 0:01 | comment | added | Hot Licks | That is a stretch, though. Than Maugham a construction that few people would use. | |
| Dec 1, 2014 at 23:03 | history | answered | Justin Greer | CC BY-SA 3.0 |