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Many years ago in my first job, I made the mistake of writing "as from" instead of "as opposed to" in a document. To me it seemed normal usage (I must have learnt it from somewhere) but everyone else claimed it was not correct English.

Were they right?

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  • Not knowing the context of the actual sentence makes it a little hard to say - there are valid use cases for "as from"
    – HorusKol
    Commented Jan 18, 2011 at 22:24
  • as I said, it was many years ago, so I can't remember the exact context, but I do remember that it seemed a natural usage to me. I must have learnt it somewhere, maybe it's a particular dialect.
    – Chris Card
    Commented Jan 19, 2011 at 8:24

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They were right:

I am tall as from short

For example, makes no sense whatsoever, I'm afraid.

You might say:

Prices will go up as from 1st January.

But that's the only use I can think of for it. Others may gainsay me.

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  • I've never heard "as from" used as shown in your second example; usually one says "as of" a particular date.
    – Jay
    Commented Jan 18, 2011 at 15:44
  • 'As of' is more common but I have heard 'as from' in that context.
    – user3444
    Commented Jan 18, 2011 at 16:03
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    @Elendil:"As from" is normal in UK English. I have heard "as of", but I think of it as American. My father used to complain at "as from (a date)" when it simply meant "from", saying that it should only be used when the sense was "as if from (that date)"; but usage was already against him then, and even more so now. I concur that it would be hard to understand in the OP's original example.
    – Colin Fine
    Commented Jan 18, 2011 at 17:44
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    Only other example I can think of is "I get twice as much money from selling pigs as from selling ducks", but that's cheating :-)
    – psmears
    Commented Jan 18, 2011 at 19:11
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My mother was born in 1928 and therefore I use "As from" when using other people's headed paper to write a letter. For example, if you were staying with someone and used their headed paper that they had left for you in your bedroom, but you did not want to use their address for any reply. You would cross out their address and write "As from" followed by your own address. Hardly relevant now but you might use it for a bread and butter letter written from a hotel on hotel paper (as a last resort).

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