• diegantobass@lemmy.world
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    5 days ago

    As a non-native speaker of english, I can’t get my head around this grammatical mistake. Than and then are completely different!

    • faltryka@lemmy.world
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      5 days ago

      This is a common mistake for many native English speakers and highlights the different challenges in speaking a language and writing a language.

      In many regions of the US for example, “than” and “then” are often pronounced exactly the same.

    • pyre@lemmy.world
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      4 days ago

      native speakers make spelling errors more often than non native speakers because they learn to speak the language way before learning to spell, which means homophones can easily register as the same word in your mind for years before you even encounter the words in writing. having to unlearn things is usually harder than just learning it in the first place.

    • kernelle@lemmy.world
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      5 days ago

      I’ve noticed over the years I never used to make the mistake, but the better my proficiency, the more I started making the mistake. I think when you start running on autopilot mistakes like that are made more often

      • diegantobass@lemmy.world
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        4 days ago

        This is a great signal to be careful about! Thanks. Something like a momebmnt when phonetics begin to take precedence on grammar. You don’t think that much when speaking and new mistakes appear.