Even seasoned writers seem to be confusing "THEN" and "THAN" nowadays, and using the incorrect word reflects on your general knowledge in a negative way.

If your financial advisor suggested you buy some LIGHTcoin (LTC), would you trust him? I wouldn't, because I wouldn't know if he really knew what he was talking about. If a doctor suggested you needed more Vitamin-C and wrote "Vitamin Sea" on the prescription, would you trust him? Probably not, unless you're a real fan of the beach... 😂

While these might be extreme examples, how we represent ourselves is important to our credibility and having people take us seriously when the need arises. So many people misssppelll words and then snark, "You obviously know what I meant, you spelling nazi"  as if it doesn't matter, but it does!

Granted, we all make mistakes sometimes, especially if we are in a hurry, and even proofreading our own work does not always reveal small mistakes. But, making those mistakes on a consistent basis does impact how others perceive us, like it or not.

THEN -versus- THAN

One of the most common mistakes I've seen in the past few years involves the words "then" and "than," which sound similar in English, but have different meanings. In order to help illustrate the difference and make it memorable, I created the following graphic, which anyone is free to snag and use if you like it.

^{• GRAPHIC BY ME • FREE TO USE, NO CREDIT NECESSARY •}

THEN

Imagine arrows coming out of the stems of the "E," indicating that something follows. "If we go to town, THEN let's stop for ice cream!" The "then"-action is dependent on our going to town.

THAN

Imagine the long stems of the "A" as being part of an old-timey scale ("balance") for weighing goods. That expresses a quantity, a value, as in: "Gold is heavier THAN silver."

THEN implies a following action or condition THAN implies a comparison between two things

Using both in a sentence as one final illustration:

If the price of crypto rises, THEN we will be in a bull market rather THAN a bear market.

And, let's hope it does!