Choosing the Proper Word
I have a confession to make. As much as I harp about people learning the difference between here and hear, where and were, and there and their, there are some words that I can’t seem to keep straight.
My usual solution, if I can’t think how to spell a word or which word to use, is to just turn the sentence around and use a completely different word. But sometimes that’s difficult.
That’s why I was tickled when I learned a simple trick to help me decide if I should say “further” or “farther.”
It’s always been easy to remember that a person could further their cause or further their education. But when I wanted to say it was farther from here than it was to there, I could never remember… is it farther or further.
Well, tonight I got the answer. It came from a weekly writing tip from Basic Learning Systems. Most of the time I already know what they present in their tips, but once in a while I find a gem… and this was one of those times. Here it is:
Further refers to a degree or an abstract quality; farther involves space or physical distance. The easiest way to remember which word to use is to think: “FAR” (as in “farther”) is for distance or space. If distance isn’t involved, use “further.”
Posted: August 16th, 2010 under word choices.
Tags: grammar, word choices