Phil And I'm Phil. We've got a question from Jasmine about how we use the word 'than'.
Question Hi! I've come across the usage of "than" many times, but I still fail to figure out how to use it. What is the difference between "than" as a conjunction and a preposition? Is the word after it in the nominative or objective case? Thank you.
Feifei 听众 Jasmine 想知道单词 “than” 作介词和作连词的时候有什么区别。
Phil This is actually a question that people have been talking about for centuries, so I think we should try and answer it. Shall we start by quickly defining the difference between a preposition and a conjunction?
Feifei Yes. 介词和连词都属于语法上的功能词，也就是无实义的虚词，用来说明句中实义词之间的关系。介词和连词的区别在于，介词可以用在名词、名词词组或者代词之前。比如 “in the office”、“at work”、“on the other hand”。而连词还可以用在从句或者短语的前面。比如：I went out although it's raining.（虽然在下雨，但我还是出门了。）Please don't leave until everyone arrives.（在所有人都到齐之前请不要离开。）在这两句话中，连词 “although” 和 “until” 后面直接跟了从句。
Phil What complicates things is that some words can be both, and 'than' is one of those words. As highlighted in the question, that affects the case of the words that follow. Let's have a look at 'than' as a preposition – we use it in comparisons to show what we're comparing something to. Listen to these examples.
Examples You're older than me, aren't you? （你年纪比我大，对不对？）
She's much better at football than him. （她踢足球比他强多了。）
I can't pick that bag of rice up, it weighs more than 50 kilos. （我提不起这袋米，它有50多公斤重。）
Feifei 在上面的三个例句中，“than” 用作介词，后面跟着人称代词或名词词组。注意，在介词 “than” 的后面要用人称代词的宾格。比如例句中的 “older than me”、“better than him”。
Phil As we said earlier, it can also be a conjunction. As a conjunction, it links two clauses together. This is where we need to pay attention to any personal pronouns. We need to use the appropriate subject or object forms depending on the roles they play in the clause. Listen to the examples.
Examples You're older than I am, aren't you? （你年纪比我大，对不对？）
She's much better at football than he is. （她踢足球比他强多了。）
I think it's easier to learn Turkish than it is to learn Arabic. （我觉得学土耳其语比学阿拉伯语容易。）
Feifei 在上面的三个例句中，“than” 用作连词，虽然 “than” 的意思还是 “前者比后者……”，但它的后面跟的是从句。在第一个例句中，You're older than I am, aren't you? “Than” 后面的从句是 “I am”，从句的主语为人称代词主格 “I”。在第二个例句中，She's much better at football than he is. “Than” 后面跟的从句是 “he is”，从句的主语是人称代词主格 “he”。
Phil You will probably have noticed that the meaning didn't really change in these examples – so what you need to pay attention to is whether 'than' is a preposition in front of a pronoun on its own, which will usually be an object, or whether it's a conjunction in front of a pronoun that is the subject of the following clause.
Feifei 在上面的例句中，不论 “than” 是作介词还是作连词，其实只是改变了句型，并没有改变句意。比如：“You're older than me.” 和 “You're older than I am.” 这两句话的意思一样，都是 “你的年纪比我大。” 但在第一句话中，“than” 作介词，后面跟人称代词宾格 “me”；在第二句话中，“than” 作连词，后面跟从句 “I am”，这里的人称代词 “I” 作从句的主语，要用主格。需要牢记的是，介词 “than” 后面通常跟作宾语的名词，而连词 “than” 后面跟的通常是包含主语的从句。
Phil We hope that we've answered your question. Remember that if you have a question you'd like us to answer, you can email us too at questions.chinaelt@bbc.co.uk
