The conjunction ‘than’ should not be used except after a comparative adjective. ‘Sooner than;’ ‘better than;’ ‘rather than,’ &c., are correct; but ‘scarcely had he uttered these words than,’ is bad English. ‘Hardly had he attained his majority than’ is equally wrong. For ‘than’ we should here use ‘when.’ ‘But’ should not be used for ‘than,’ as, ‘no sooner had he finished his work but.’
Another common mistake is to use ‘except’ for ‘unless.’ The former is a preposition, and must be followed not by a proposition, but by a noun or pronoun. It is bad grammar to say ‘no one should aspire to this situation, except he is competent to fulfil its duties.’ (Here, we should read ‘unless’ for ‘except.’)
‘Like’ is also frequently confounded with ‘as.’ The former is a preposition, and should not be used as a conjunction. ‘Do you write like I do?’ is wrong. It should be ‘as (not like) I do.’
‘Notwithstanding he thought so,’ is bad English. We should here use ‘although.’ ‘Notwithstanding’ is a preposition, and is followed by its object. We say correctly, ‘notwithstanding his objections,’ but not properly, ‘notwithstanding he objected.’
‘But’ is often redundant after the word ‘doubt.’ We continually meet with ‘I have no doubt but that,’ &c. This is a wrong form: the ‘but’ should be omitted.
As an example of a loose sentence; i.e. where the connection of the parts is not sufficiently clear, the following advertisement of a hair-dresser may be quoted:—
‘Seven lessons in hair-dressing may be had for one guinea, which (?) being imparted on a system entirely new, will enable any one so instructed to give the most complete satisfaction!’
The Anglo-Saxon ‘tíd’ meant ‘time’ (compare the German ‘Zeit’); whence to ‘betide’ means to happen in time. The ‘tide’ is the time at which the water rises and falls. ‘Tidy,’ also, in old English, signified properly ‘timely.’
In old English, we meet with the form ‘ton,’ which is for ‘the one;’ and this may probably account for ‘t’other,’ or ‘the t’other,’ which is, in fact, a contraction of ‘that other.’ But ‘t’other’ is now accounted a vulgarism.