“Different from” / “different than” / “different to” in English

Prepositions are a common source of errors for non-native speakers, but fortunately, this should not be one of them because all three prepositions are correct.

The only difference is that of commonness. “Different from” is by far the most common one (as in “apples are different from oranges”).

“Different than” is used to a certain degree in the United States and not so much in the UK, whereas “different to” is somewhat common in British English but uncommon in American English. Nevertheless, if you use any of the three on either side of the Atlantic, you will be understood.

One significant difference in usage is that “than” can be used in combination with another preposition, while “from” and “to” can’t. For example, you could say,

Expressions like “than in the past” can be understood as abbreviations of subordinate clauses, in this case “than it was in the past”. “Different than” is the only form that can introduce a subordinate clause:

The other two variants require an object after the preposition, so the sentence above could be rephrased as