5 ms·

OT, but can I ask where you're from? I'm from CA and I generally hear "different from" (not "different to"). I've lived elsewhere in the US, but never Texas, an

OT, but can I ask where you're from? I'm from CA and I generally hear "different from" (not "different to"). I've lived elsewhere in the US, but never Texas, and wouldn't have expected them to say "different to" — which I think of as being a British English construction. Do people say "different to" in Texas?

bigyikes 4y ago
I’m a native Texan, also lived in CA, and “different to” also sounds somewhat foreign to me.
- silverpepsi 4y ago
  Midwest and I've definitely always believed "different to" was a British phrase and not even grammatical in US English (i.e. a native speaker who hadn't encountered it throughout life in UK publications would judge it as flat out wrong)
- fy20 4y ago
  Native Brit, never lived in USA, "different to" sounds like what the King would say.
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
idbehold 4y ago
Interesting. What about the opposite? "Similar from" sounds incorrect to me. So why do we prefer "different from" and "similar to" vs. "different to" and "similar from"? Why is there any implicit directionality?
- unlockextralarg 4y ago
  France is close to Germany but far from Canada. Kefir is similar to yogurt but different from it. You must conform to the law and not deviate from it.
  - josuepeq 4y ago
    The citizens of Saint Pierre and Miquelon might disagree with the first line in your statement.
dilap 4y ago
Username "barbacoa" strongly suggests they live in TX/MX. I'd guess it's the influence of Spanish, which uses "a" (~ "to" in English) for almost everything.
- gnicholas 4y ago
  The username was part of what led me to ask. Probably not many UK/AU folks would choose that handle! But you're right — I've heard some native Spanish speakers say "different to", and it's likely because they say "diferente a" not "diferente de" (where "de" typically translates as "from"). This situation raises an interesting philosophical question: is it ungrammatical for a native Spanish speaker living in CA to say this? I have always considered it to be an ungrammatical/incorrect usage. But coming from a British person I wouldn't consider it incorrect. I would consider them to be speaking a different dialect of English. If a student said this in an English literature class in CA, my guess is that the teacher would correct the native Spanish speaker but not correct the British student. Or at least this would be my intuition as a native English speaker who studied linguistics a decade or two ago!
  - dilap 4y ago
    I wouldn't be surprised if it was regionally common/"not weird", but I don't know! A personal data-point: I'm a native English speaker from norcal/oregon, and my wife is a native Spanish speaker from Monterrey, Mexico. Since learning Spanish and being exposed to her good, but definitely not native, English, I didn't even notice "different to", and it doesn't seem particularly "weird" to me. But if I think about it I'm pretty sure it would've seened very weird to me back when I was in Oregon! (It goes the other direction too. E.g., she's caught herself saying "vino rojo" instead of "vino tinto" and "hacer linea" instead of "hacer fila".) In general I think it's pretty common when two languages are in close-contact to get some cross-contamination like that. And prepositions are often pretty arbitrary.

bigyikes 4y ago

I’m a native Texan, also lived in CA, and “different to” also sounds somewhat foreign to me.

silverpepsi 4y ago
Midwest and I've definitely always believed "different to" was a British phrase and not even grammatical in US English (i.e. a native speaker who hadn't encountered it throughout life in UK publications would judge it as flat out wrong)
fy20 4y ago
Native Brit, never lived in USA, "different to" sounds like what the King would say.

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]

idbehold 4y ago

Interesting. What about the opposite? "Similar from" sounds incorrect to me. So why do we prefer "different from" and "similar to" vs. "different to" and "similar from"? Why is there any implicit directionality?

unlockextralarg 4y ago
France is close to Germany but far from Canada. Kefir is similar to yogurt but different from it. You must conform to the law and not deviate from it.
- josuepeq 4y ago
  The citizens of Saint Pierre and Miquelon might disagree with the first line in your statement.

dilap 4y ago

Username "barbacoa" strongly suggests they live in TX/MX. I'd guess it's the influence of Spanish, which uses "a" (~ "to" in English) for almost everything.

gnicholas 4y ago
The username was part of what led me to ask. Probably not many UK/AU folks would choose that handle! But you're right — I've heard some native Spanish speakers say "different to", and it's likely because they say "diferente a" not "diferente de" (where "de" typically translates as "from"). This situation raises an interesting philosophical question: is it ungrammatical for a native Spanish speaker living in CA to say this? I have always considered it to be an ungrammatical/incorrect usage. But coming from a British person I wouldn't consider it incorrect. I would consider them to be speaking a different dialect of English. If a student said this in an English literature class in CA, my guess is that the teacher would correct the native Spanish speaker but not correct the British student. Or at least this would be my intuition as a native English speaker who studied linguistics a decade or two ago!
- dilap 4y ago
  I wouldn't be surprised if it was regionally common/"not weird", but I don't know! A personal data-point: I'm a native English speaker from norcal/oregon, and my wife is a native Spanish speaker from Monterrey, Mexico. Since learning Spanish and being exposed to her good, but definitely not native, English, I didn't even notice "different to", and it doesn't seem particularly "weird" to me. But if I think about it I'm pretty sure it would've seened very weird to me back when I was in Oregon! (It goes the other direction too. E.g., she's caught herself saying "vino rojo" instead of "vino tinto" and "hacer linea" instead of "hacer fila".) In general I think it's pretty common when two languages are in close-contact to get some cross-contamination like that. And prepositions are often pretty arbitrary.