Why it's not a match: untangling the "lower then" error

Reviewed and edited by

Lloyd Cooper 30/09/2024, 16:39

English.me team member

What kind of error is it?

Lower then or lower than. What's correct?

Homophone and grammatical error

Why do people make this mistake?

People often confuse "then" and "than" because they are homophones, words that sound similar but have different meanings, and are used in different grammatical contexts.

What is correct?

The correct phrase is "lower than". "Than" is used for making comparisons, while "then" is used to indicate time or sequence.

Examples of correct usage

The temperature is lower than yesterday.
Her score was lower than mine.
He is shorter than his brother.