Even for native speakers , the English language is full of booby trap . That ’s why people are so hesitant to usewhominstead ofwho , and why think about the differences betweenlayandlieis enough to give professional linguists a vexation . One of the more common pitfalls isfurthervs.farther : Both words describe similar situations , and there ’s only one letter of the alphabet separating them . Though they ’re often used interchangeably , there is a difference betweenfurtherandfarther , and luckily for anyone who struggles with grammar , there ’s an easy trick to recollect what it is .
Furtherandfartherare both used in sexual congress to progress , but the character of forward motion they describe differs . According toQuick and Dirty Tips , fartheris appropriate for physical space , i.e. " the runner was far down the track than his competitor , " whilefurtheris used for figurative or metaphorical scenario , such as " the senator was disrupt before she could go further in her speech . "
The beneficial way to remember this is to look at the first three letters of the row . Fartherstarts withfar , a Logos that ’s associated with forcible distance . This can remind you to usefartherwhen describing thing like car trips and walks , and savefurtherfor concepts like project , movies , and dreams .
This note is clear enough , but thing can get sticky when it ’s not totally obvious if a statement is dish out with physical or metaphorical distance . Take the prison term " the author had gotten farther in her poem by the afternoon " as an exemplar . If the progress being referred to is rail line on a pageboy , fartherworks just fine , but if the speaker is talking about the verse form as a piece of artistic creation , further may be more more appropriate . In such representative , it ’s usually safe to default on tofurther : Usage forfartheris slightly stricter , and becausefurtherdeals with billet that are already hard to define , you could get away with using it in more contexts . And if you still get them sundry up , do n’t permit it vex you too much . Merriam - Websternotes that great writers have been usingfartherandfurtherinterchangeably for one C .
[ h / tQuick and Dirty Tips ]
