What Are the Chances?

What Are the Chances?

It’s kind of hard to skip writing about an actual “publicly-quoted” quote that legitimizes using the word “then” where the word “than” must be used for it to be a proper, correct sentence.

This quote was made by an ex-NBA basketball player, now comedian(?), (it says that in a little bio I read), who I don’t really know, and is one of those unfortunate people who don’t know when to use the words “then” and “than.”

At this point in time, I’m going to have to say this likely isn’t totally the quoted player’s fault, and it may not be his fault at all.

This may be one of your pet peeves; it’s kind of been one of mine over the years. Of course, there are legit reasons why “then” shows up in places that are strictly “than” territory now. Voice to text is certainly one of those reasons.

So we all have to show a little understanding, and agree that it could be an honest mistake. It doesn’t appear that’s the likely cause for it to be used in this publicly-ISSUED quote however.

We must acknowledge that most people try to avoid mistakes and take the time to fix them before sending their messages, tweets, online complaints, etc. to someone else.

I think one of the saddest outcomes of this, is that people generally don’t want to call this misuse of words out, because people who do it, get mad, and will oftentimes snap back at you for saying something, when they have no interest in learning why it’s the wrong word anyway.

I generally don’t bother calling it out myself, because I know it’s useless, but I thought addressing it in this piece, and calling out a celebrity might have an impact on someone who reads it and is one who misuses the word.

In this particular case, when I saw the mistake in the email with the quote as a prompt, I then needed to see if the real quote had the mistake or if the quote in the email was just mistaken. Research suggested the mistake’s in the actual quote.

What this implied, was that the quote was seen by some press celebrity follower who takes celebrity quotes and pushes them onto the public as words of wisdom.

My guess for who published the errant-worded “quote” would be the person elevating the quote to legendary status, and who also doesn’t know when to use the words “then” or “than.”

While considering this, it occurred to me that maybe the person who is quoted wasn’t the person who made the grammatical mistake in the first place.

People don’t usually write down their own quotes, do they? Doing that, in my opinion, would seem kind of narcissistic. When people are “quoted,” they usually said something and were overheard.

So I may owe an apology to the now comedian, ex-NBA basketball player who is the source of the quote, because he surely said “than” when speaking and the writer who heard it wrote the word then.

Let’s be clear; people do not normally, when speaking, say things like, “I’d rather have a beer then a glass of wine,” with the “then” SOUND employed. If they did, the bartender would ask them, “Do you want the wine and beer at the same time, or do you want the wine after you’ve finished drinking the beer?”

Even though they may write “then,” that isn’t what comes out of their mouths. So, what would actually have been said, would have been, “I’d rather have a beer than a glass of wine, illustrating how damaging this written error is.

If that’s the case, then whoever actually wrote down the quote is making Kevin Garnett look like he doesn’t know “then” from “than,” when he may, (and probably does), know it’s a mistake.

There are probably celebrities who do write down their own “quotes” that they think up, but I’d have to think that any who would do that, probably aren’t all that literate, or never knew enough about grammar to understand there’s a difference.

This is the quote that’s all over the internet: “They say no matter how hard you work, there’s always someone, somewhere working harder then you. (Emphasis mine), and continues with, “Guess what.. I’m that someone” – Kevin Garnett.

I’m not sure who made the mistake and put then where than should be, but isn’t this really crappy if Kevin knows how to use then and than, and someone who doesn’t is making him look bad all over the internet?

Since he is now a comedian, he’s probably referring to his work as a comedian being hard. An NBA pro basketball player wouldn’t think playing basketball was working harder than everyone else… he’d enjoy playing basketball.

With this in mind, now that he is a working comedian, his “quotes” may be written down by an aide who works for him. This might suggest that Kevin probably sees the written quote at some point, and if that’s the case, we could then actually blame Kevin for the mistake.

I really don’t care, one way or the other. It’s obvious that someday relatively soon, because there are just SO MANY people who make this mistake, that the word “then” will be given TWO meanings, and one of them will likely be labeled with the additional "urban" definition of ”a slang term for than.”

This has to be one of the silliest and most ridiculous grammatical errors ever; that it will, in my opinion, actually get to that point when they’ll add the meaning of “than” to the wrong word for convenience's-sake, is beyond belief. I’d definitely bet on it happening though.

Let’s face it – it’s a prime example of the total failure of the government to educate kids, not just today, but for some time now. That point, when it gets so bad that the only remaining option will be to add than’s meaning to the wrong word, is most definitely on the horizon if you ask me, because what else could we possibly do?

Giving the word “then” the additional “slang” designation for “than’s” meaning, will be one of the first major steps heading downward into the basement and into that dark little corner, where human intelligence got lost; an area that is already quite cluttered with lots of nonsense.

_{What Are the Chances? © free-reign 2020}

Sources for images used in this post:

_{NBA Ball: Image by tookapic from Pixabay
Kevin Garnett: Image by areyougonnabemynba from Pixabay
Cartoon Caption: IImage by Clker-Free-Vector-Images from Pixabay
Angel/Devil: Image from Pixabay}

I've written this opinionated piece as I was inspired by a quote as one of the writing prompts I received in a daily email from @shadowspub. The quote, from Kevin Garnett is, “They say no matter how hard you work, there’s always someone, somewhere working harder then you. Guess what.. I’m that someone.”

Thanks for reading!