Just because Americans in their supreme ignorance use it does NOT make it acceptable nor elegant.

I always correct close ones when they repeatedly use the phrase “different than.” Why? I’m not an English teacher, but I have always reasoned that since “different” is merely the noun form of the verb “differ,” the correct usage would stem from the preposition that follows the word “differ.” If something differs, it differs FROM something else; ergo, if one thing differs from another, it is different from it (not THAN it).

Difference necessarily implies inequality, but that is not its linguistic function. Consider that, when compared to other qualifiers (like “faster”), “different” works differently. The word “different” can be qualified in ways “faster” can’t; e.g., a thing can be more different but not more faster. Moreover, things must only be MORE or LESS different THAN other things. A thing cannot simply be different than another, but it can differ from another or be more or less different than another.

As for the problem of clauses inconveniently following the word, my solution is to turn the clause into a noun phrase. For example, “different from what I expected” instead of “different from I expected.” I hope I used the term “noun phrase” correctly. I can’t comment on the rectitude of leaving the clause and using “than,” but I find it exceedingly awkward. Lesser of two evils, methinks.

The word “err” is a great analogy. Things can err or be errant. They are the active and passive ways of saying the same thing, like differ and different. Things err from other things, or they can be errant from things. It is clear from the usage of the verb that the noun form is awkward with “than” after it. Nothing can be errant THAN something, it can only err or be errant FROM something. Oh, but it can also me MORE or LESS errant THAN something else.

Forgive my inconsistent usage of quotation marks. Without italics, they become necessary in egregious forms. Also, my parlance is clearly unenlightened by strict terminology, but I think my reasoning is sound. Perhaps the editor could reword it more eloquently.

Thanks.

“College life is different than I expected.” This is the same as saying, “College life is different than I expected it to be.” There is nothing incorrect about this sentence.

“College is different than my expectation.” This, to my knowledge, is incorrect. Than is a conjunction, and you are using it where a preposition–in this case, the word from–is needed.

should be

“College life is different than what I expected.”

or

“College life is different than my expectation.”

The original had too many objects, each complete with its own verb.