Considering that the word "than" rhymes precisely with "tan" and the word "then" rhymes precisely with "ten", where is the logic in this?
I don't know why you say that, Nevan. I am merely explaining everything according to what I learned in school. That may have been more than 40 years ago, but no matter, it still remains valid today. Just to prove that I am not ignoring your examples, I have often said things like "it's a lot worse than I remember" and it does NOT "reduce" the vowel in "than" to a "schwa", it still sounds like "than". As I said before, only in Norfolk would it sound like "then" due to their regional accent (they pronounce the word "can" like "Ken" there). I am not on a high horse at all. I don't know what it is about sites like this but I always encounter someone who misinterprets me in that way. I am really not the "high horse" type at all, and I can't figure out how some people see that in me when it is not there.
They're more similar parts of speech.
This question is mainly about spelling and pronunciation, not word usage. I would have thought the pronunciation would make the spelling obvious in both cases. How does being "more similar parts of speech" affect the spelling or pronunciation?
