I thought it was dry! I was promised a dry heat! Is it not dry?
It depends on where you are. In Tel-Aviv and the rest of the coast area, it's humid enough to feel like you're swimming in the air instead of walking through it. There are no rains during the summer like in NYC, but the levels of humidity are pretty similar. ita would love that weather.
However, there are mountains (like those around Jerusalem) and a desert or two (like the big one down south), and there it can become really seriously dry. Well, more in the desert, obviously, not that much in Jerusalem area, but still, no humidity there. So this weather is more for you. It's not much more than an hour by car from walk-in-soup Tel-Aviv to breath-the-sand Be'er-Sheva (in the desert), and 45 minutes or so from Tel-Aviv to Jerusalem, so you can experience lots of different summers in one day.
Now, of course, the question is, when are you coming over to check out my answers? Um, I mean, hey, Emily! Long time no post together.
OK, here's the reason I popped my head in here in the first place, before I started luring innocent Buffistas to the I-just-left-the-shower-and-the-one-thing-I-want-is-to-shower-again that is Tel-Aviv in the summer: If you wanna say that there is a difference between Thing1 and Thing2, but for whatever reason you don't wanna phrase your sentence like that, but rather say something like "Thing1 is different __________ Thing2".
What would you put in the "__________"? "from"? "than"? Something else entirely?
Thanks, hivemind!
[Edit: why am I not surprised that Shir needed less than two lines to write the answer that took me three paragraphs?
Also: Egypt! It does have similarities in climate with Eilat, the southern border of Israel, who shares a border with Egypt. When are you going? And couldn't you cross that border a bit and come visit here, too?]
Well, Egypt is mostly desert, so I think you'll experience mostly dry heat.
And also, yay for you! I almost want to suggest a F2F in one of the border crossings.
If you wanna say that there is a difference between Thing1 and Thing2, but for whatever reason you don't wanna phrase your sentence like that, but rather say something like "Thing1 is different __________ Thing2".
What would you put in the "__________"? "from"? "than"? Something else entirely?
"From". Although "than" works as well.
I'm trying to think of a case where "than" works better... I guess it would if Thing1 and Thing2 were not nouns... but then they wouldn't be Things, would they?
Apples differ from oranges. Apples are different from oranges.
I can't think of an example where "than" would be used instead.
Abstract nouns?
"Hatred is different than spite."
"Hatred is different from spite."
I think "than" works a little better. But the more I read the two sentences, the less sure I am....
Apples differ from oranges. Apples are different from oranges.
Apples are sweeter than oranges. Apples look different than oranges. Nope, don't think the second one works.
"than" is more of a comparison word, isn't it?
I've overthought it, and now they all look wrong. Let us turn to the Great Goog for answers.
[link]
I did not learn to say whole sentences when I went to Ethiopia. I learned to say "toilet", "hungry", "please", "thank you", "wait", and "it's ok". I would say the first three as statements and as questions.
My handy copy of Fowler's says:
The commonly expressed view that different should only be followed by from and never by to or than is not supportable in the face of past and present evidence or of logic, though the distribution of the constructions is not straightforward
The OED lists examples of each of the three constructions: different from, 1590; different to, 1526; different than, 1644. In the 20th century, a marked preference for "different from" his been shown in British English; in the same period, "different than" has flourished in American English, but so too has "different from."
