“then” vs. “than”
Use "than" only when comparing two things; use "then" for everything related to time, sequence, or a conditional's result.
then
"Then" relates to time or sequence: it can mean "at that time" ("we were younger then"), "next" ("mix the eggs, then add the flour"), or "in that case" in a conditional ("if it rains, then we'll stay in"). "Then" descends from Old English "þonne," originally used for both time sequence and, in certain constructions, comparison — the two senses genuinely used to overlap in Old and Middle English, unlike in modern English, where they've split cleanly between two separate spellings.
than
"Than" is used exclusively for comparisons between two things ("faster than a car," "more expensive than expected"). It has no other grammatical function in modern English. "Than" comes from that same Old English root, "þonne"/"þanne," and only gradually separated into its own distinct spelling and comparison-only function during the Middle English period, meaning "then" and "than" are historically the same word that split apart over centuries rather than two words that happened to end up looking alike by coincidence.
The real distinction
"Then" and "than" differ by only a single vowel, and in many fast or casual American accents they can sound close enough to blur together, which is the main reason this pair gets mixed up in writing far more often than in careful speech. The reliable test is function: "than" appears only when comparing two things against each other, while "then" covers everything related to time, sequence, or logical consequence — jobs "than" never performs. Because "then" and "than" were genuinely one and the same word for centuries before English writing settled on two separate spellings for two separate jobs, some older historical texts use "then" where modern English would require "than" for a comparison — a genuine historical variation rather than an error by the standards of the time it was written, though modern style guides treat the distinction as fully fixed and non-negotiable in contemporary writing. Because then/than were historically one word that only split apart during the Middle English period, some regional and historical English dialects preserved the old overlap longer than standard written English did, and a handful of older published texts from as recently as the 18th century still occasionally show "then" used where a modern reader would expect "than" — genuinely correct by the standards of when it was written, not a typo. Editors reviewing comparative claims in persuasive or analytical writing ("X is better than Y") pay particularly close attention to this pair, since a stray "then" in a comparison can quietly undermine an otherwise well-argued sentence.
Examples with “then”
- We finished dinner, then went for a walk.
- Back then, nobody had a smartphone.
- First add the sugar, then the butter.
- If you're ready, then let's go.
- She was younger then than she is now.
- He finished the report, then sent it off.
- If it's broken, then we'll need a replacement.
- We lived downtown back then.
Examples with “than”
- This route is faster than the highway.
- She's more experienced than her colleagues.
- Nothing tastes better than fresh bread.
- He arrived earlier than expected.
- The test was harder than last year's.
- It's cheaper to fly than to drive.
- She types faster than anyone else on the team.
- The city is quieter than I remembered.
Memory trick
Both "than" and "comparison" contain an "a," while both "then" and "when" (a time word) contain an "e" — a small spelling hook that ties each word to its correct grammatical job. A secondary, purely visual check: because "than" appears almost exclusively in comparative sentences containing a comparative word ending in "-er" or the word "more"/"less" nearby ("faster than," "more than"), scanning for that nearby comparative marker is often a faster real-time check than trying to recall the full grammatical rule from memory while writing quickly. A quick final gut-check: scan the sentence for a comparative word like "more," "less," "better," or an "-er" ending nearby; its presence almost always signals that "than" is the word you need.