"You are different from me."
"You are different to me."
"You are different than me."

- which, if any, is more correct?

I have recently seen in this this group the construction:-
"You are different than I am."

- is this correct and if so why?

--
^Ï^. Sn!pe, PA, FIBS - Professional Crastinator

My pet rock Gordon just is.

Sn!pe wrote:

> "You are different from me."
> "You are different to me."
> "You are different than me."
>
> - which, if any, is more correct?

You are different from me.

An Ngram confirms it very convincingly. The to-version is present, but
the than-version is not.

--
Bertel
Kolt, Denmark

On 2024-04-27 09:01, Bertel Lund Hansen wrote:
> Sn!pe wrote:
>
>> "You are different from me."
>> "You are different to me."
>> "You are different than me."
>>
>> - which, if any, is more correct?
>
> You are different from me.
>
> An Ngram confirms it very convincingly. The to-version is present, but
> the than-version is not.

Interesting. I never use the first two, 'from' grates a little, and I
would take 'different to me' to have a different meaning than the other
two, and would sound to me like "in my opinion, you are the different one".

--
Palindromedary: n. A camel with one hump, but two front-ends.
https://palindromedary.us/

On 27-Apr-24 15:07, Sn!pe wrote:
> "You are different from me."
> "You are different to me."
> "You are different than me."
>
> - which, if any, is more correct?
>
> I have recently seen in this this group the construction:-
>
> "You are different than I am."
>
> - is this correct and if so why?

You and I differ.

--
Sam Plusnet

In article <1qsohe7.1ww7xhewiu1rzN%snipeco.2@gmail.com>,
Sn!pe <snipeco.1@gmail.com> wrote:

>"You are different from me."
>"You are different to me."
>"You are different than me."
>
>- which, if any, is more correct?

I was taught that "than" may only be used with comparatives.
This is not a rule that I personally observe in my own speech,
however. (I try to be a bit more careful in writing.) I remember
being told off for it when I was in *Finland* so I guess that the same
is true for the BrE-based instructional standard that prevails there.

"Different to" sound like a different dialect but I wouldn't know
which one -- or perhaps a calque from some other language (French?).
"Different from" is the only acceptable construction in my version of
Standard Written English.

>I have recently seen in this this group the construction:-
>
>"You are different than I am."
>
>- is this correct and if so why?

In my dialect no, because different is not a comparative. "You are
(more|less) different [from some unspecified referent] than I am"
would be perfectly grammatical if a bit of an odd statement.

-GAWollman

--
Garrett A. Wollman | "Act to avoid constraining the future; if you can,
wollman@bimajority.org| act to remove constraint from the future. This is
Opinions not shared by| a thing you can do, are able to do, to do together."
my employers. | - Graydon Saunders, _A Succession of Bad Days_ (2015)

On 28/04/24 00:07, Sn!pe wrote:

> "You are different from me."

The traditional form, and I think it's still the most common in AusE.

> "You are different to me."

Found sometimes in BrE.

> "You are different than me."

Found sometimes in AmE.

The opposite forms "similar from" and "similar than" do not seem to exist.

--
Peter Moylan http://www.pmoylan.org
Newcastle, NSW

On Sat, 27 Apr 2024 21:11:18 -0000 (UTC),
wollman@hergotha.csail.mit.edu (Garrett Wollman) wrote:

>In article <1qsohe7.1ww7xhewiu1rzN%snipeco.2@gmail.com>,
>Sn!pe <snipeco.1@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>>"You are different from me."
>>"You are different to me."
>>"You are different than me."
>>
>>- which, if any, is more correct?
>
>I was taught that "than" may only be used with comparatives.
>This is not a rule that I personally observe in my own speech,
>however. (I try to be a bit more careful in writing.) I remember
>being told off for it when I was in *Finland* so I guess that the same
>is true for the BrE-based instructional standard that prevails there.
>
>"Different to" sound like a different dialect but I wouldn't know
>which one -- or perhaps a calque from some other language (French?).
>"Different from" is the only acceptable construction in my version of
>Standard Written English.
>
>>I have recently seen in this this group the construction:-
>>
>>"You are different than I am."
>>
>>- is this correct and if so why?
>
>In my dialect no, because different is not a comparative. "You are
>(more|less) different [from some unspecified referent] than I am"
>would be perfectly grammatical if a bit of an odd statement.
>

I agree with these comments. One 'than' I find less jarring:
"That is different than I expected" where 'than' replaces
'from what'.

The Google ngrams display different-than showing up mainly
after 1920. In the century since, the preference for
different-from has dropped (steadily) from a 40-fold ratio to 8-fold.

https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=different+from%2Fdifferent+than&year_start=1920&year_end=2019&corpus=en-2019&smoothing=3

--
Rich Ulrich

On Sat, 27 Apr 2024 15:07:07 +0100, snipeco.2@gmail.com (Sn!pe) wrote:

>"You are different from me."
>"You are different to me."
>"You are different than me."
>
>- which, if any, is more correct?

I use all three, but which I use depends on the context.

I mostly use "different from", but in some instances "different to" or
"different than" sound better.

--
Steve Hayes from Tshwane, South Africa
Web: http://www.khanya.org.za/stevesig.htm
Blog: http://khanya.wordpress.com
E-mail - see web page, or parse: shayes at dunelm full stop org full stop uk

On Sun, 28 Apr 2024 10:28:06 +1000
Peter Moylan <peter@pmoylan.org.invalid> wrote:

> On 28/04/24 00:07, Sn!pe wrote:
>
> > "You are different from me."
>
> The traditional form, and I think it's still the most common in AusE.
>
> > "You are different to me."
>
> Found sometimes in BrE.
>
> > "You are different than me."
>
> Found sometimes in AmE.
>
> The opposite forms "similar from" and "similar than" do not seem to exist.
>
"We're all different!" </MP's LoB misquote>
--
Bah, and indeed Humbug.

Peter Moylan submitted this idea :
> On 28/04/24 00:07, Sn!pe wrote:
>
>> "You are different from me."
>
> The traditional form, and I think it's still the most common in AusE.
>
>> "You are different to me."
>
> Found sometimes in BrE.
>
>> "You are different than me."
>
> Found sometimes in AmE.
>
> The opposite forms "similar from" and "similar than" do not seem to exist.

Maybe "similar by" or "similar at"?

/dps "ignoring 'similar with' because we testing many cuts"
(ignoring, but what about ingoring?)

--
"I'm glad unicorns don't ever need upgrades."
"We are as up as it is possible to get graded!"
_Phoebe and Her Unicorn_, 2016.05.15

lar3ryca <larry@invalid.ca> writes:
> On 2024-04-27 09:01, Bertel Lund Hansen wrote:
>> Sn!pe wrote:
>>
>>> "You are different from me."
>>> "You are different to me."
>>> "You are different than me."
>>>
>>> - which, if any, is more correct?
>>
>> You are different from me.
>>
>> An Ngram confirms it very convincingly. The to-version is present, but
>> the than-version is not.
>
> Interesting. I never use the first two, 'from' grates a little, and I
> would take 'different to me' to have a different meaning than the
> other two, and would sound to me like "in my opinion, you are the
> different one".

By how much do you differ than me?

Phil
--
We are no longer hunters and nomads. No longer awed and frightened, as we have
gained some understanding of the world in which we live. As such, we can cast
aside childish remnants from the dawn of our civilization.
-- NotSanguine on SoylentNews, after Eugen Weber in /The Western Tradition/