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Have you ever wondered if there is a difference between different from and different than? What about different to?
It can be very confusing trying to decide which preposition to use with different.
Keep reading to find out how to determine which one to use, and stick around for the mini quiz at the end of this blog post to test your knowledge!
Table of Contents
Is Different From or Different Than Correct?
Very short answer: most style guides recommend using different from.
The Chicago Manual of Style (CMOS) notes that “the phrasing different from is generally considered preferable to different than.”
AP Style recommends that different “takes the preposition from, not than.”
How to Use Different From in a Sentence
Different is an adjective that means not the same or partly or totally unlike in nature, form, or quality. When followed by a preposition like from, than, or to, it suggests a contrast between two things.
Examples of different from in a sentence:
Her house was very different from all the others on the street.
He was different from his brother, Paul.
A Labrador is different from a terrier.
What Does Different Than Mean?
As well as being a preposition, than is also a conjunction that’s often used with comparative adjectives like more, less, colder, warmer, further, farther, etc. Different is not a comparative adjective, so different than often grates on grammar pedants’ ears. However, it has been used as far back as the seventeenth century and is sometimes used when followed by a clause (subject + verb) or if from sounds awkward.
Example:
Incorrect: The job was different from he thought it would be.
Correct: The job was different than he thought it would be.
Different than can introduce a clause, whereas different from is usually followed by a noun or pronoun.
You could rewrite the above sentence to “The job was different from what he thought it would be” if you wanted to use different from.
Grammar Posts
American English vs. British English
In British English, there’s a third option: different to. So is it different to or from or than?
According to The Oxford Style Manual, both US English and British English use different from when contrasting two things. However, it notes that different than is mainly used in US English and different to is used exclusively in British English.
CMOS also notes that different to is distinctly British English.
Different From vs. Different Than Quiz
Choose the correct word in each sentence. You can find the answers at the bottom of this blog post.
- His car is not that different from/than mine, but he drives a lot faster.
- This soup tastes different from/than last week’s soup.
- Teenagers these days are different from/than their parents.
- I got a different result from/than you did.
- His handwriting was very different from/than the writing on the ransom note.
Final Thoughts on Different From or Different Than
Both different from and different than are acceptable, especially in US English; however, different from is more commonly used. If you want to avoid scrutiny, use different from unless it’s followed by a clause or it would sound awkward to use from.
Need a Grammar Refresh?
If you struggle with commonly confused words or aren’t sure what run-on sentences or sentence fragments are, check out the Grammar Lion course. I really enjoyed this course because it went right back to basics—to the things you may have learned in school but that are long forgotten. Thanks to the quizzes before and after each module, it’s a lot more fun than school!
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Different From vs. Different Than Quiz Answers
- His car is not that different from mine, but he drives a lot faster.
- This soup tastes different from last week’s soup.
- Teenagers these days are different from their parents.
- I got a different result than you did.
- His handwriting was very different from the writing on the ransom note.
Punctuation Posts
How to Use an Ellipsis: Chicago vs. AP Style
En Dash vs. Em Dash: When and How to Use Them
How to Use an Apostrophe (and Mistakes You Need to Avoid)
How to Use Commas (and Mistakes to Avoid)
Colon vs. Semicolon: When and How to Use Them
How to Use Quotation Marks (and the Difference between Single Quotes vs. Double Quotes)
