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Why "less then" leaves linguists less than impressed
Anwar Kareem 01/10/2024, 05:01English.me team member
What kind of error is it?
grammatical error
Why do people make this mistake?
People often confuse "then" and "than" because they sound similar and have similar spelling, but they serve different grammatical functions. "Then" is an adverb often related to time, while "than" is a conjunction used for comparisons.
What is correct?
"Less than" is correct because "than" is the conjunction used to make comparisons.
Examples of correct usage
- She is less than 5 feet tall.
- He has less than 10 dollars.
- The task took less than an hour.
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