I notice that your site differentiates between further and farther, as if to claim that there is a difference and that those who use the words interchangeably are wrong.
While North American usage may be that ‘farther’ denotes distance, you should note that Marriam-Webster states that ‘further’ is also perfectly valid in this context. So while ‘farther’ may be more commonly used, either is in fact correct.
In UK English usage, ‘farther’ is almost unheard of and ‘further’ is used for every meaning from distance to ‘further education’. Check, for example, Cambridge Dictionary or the Oxford English Dictionary for evidence on this point.
It would be more educational if you would cease claiming an absolute distinction in this regard and instead make clear that either usage is acceptable, even if one is more commonly used in the US context.
Dear WR:
Thank you for your note.
The M-W Dictionary is descriptive, so it would note how people use words regardless of the precision.
Our observation has been that the two words are often used interchangeably in everyday speech, but we are more concerned about standard written English here.
We would be interested in some examples of accepted UK English in which further is used in the way that you say it is. We have noted a few places where North American and UK usage do differ; if this is the true case in the UK, then we would include it.
I’m a Brit and notice that we use further in just about all cases with some minor regional differences. I use only the OED and find that in all of the editions since 1950, at least, that further is described as being the most commonly (and correctly) used in UK English, even RP. It seems that until the mid nineteenth century farther might have been used more frequently but both are equally valid and, in my opinion, American usage and spelling of English is every bit as valid as British.
I’m English too and the OED says that they mean the same in UK English but have different meanings in US English. As an English English speaker, the OED’s view is good enough for me!
There’s a good reason why in British English and English spoken in other countries like Australia, NZ, Ireland, Wales and Scotland that ‘further’ is used in all contexts. That reason is that to us, ‘farther’ is hard to say in a way that doesn’t sound like ‘father’. For that reason ‘farther’ becomes ridiculous and is extremely seldom used, so more and more becomes something quintessentially American.
As a Canadian English speaker (and professional writer/editor), there is no context in which I would use farther. The further/farther distinction appears to me to be exclusively American.
Dear Christina,
Thank you for the note. For what it is worth, when we were first putting together Grammar Slammer twenty years ago, our contributors included a Canadian professor of English. Language marches on.
The full OED makes the point that Farther is used as a comparative of FAR. In full it says:
[ME. ferþer (whence by normal phonetic development farther) is in origin a mere variant of further, due prob. to the analogy of the vb. ferþren:—OE. fyrðrian to further. The primary sense of further, farther is ‘more forward, more onward’; but this sense is practically coincident with that of the comparative degree of far, where the latter word refers to real or attributed motion in some particular direction. Hence further, farther came to be used as the comparative of far; first in the special application just mentioned, and ultimately in all senses, displacing the regular comparative farrer. In standard Eng. the form farther is usually preferred where the word is intended to be the comparative of far, while further is used where the notion of far is altogether absent; there is a large intermediate class of instances in which the choice between the two forms is arbitrary.]
I think that the argument of whether one use is more US and another more British is probably over simplified. Use as you wish! 🙂
Another English English speaker.
Farther is so alien to me that when I just saw it in a US publication I thought it was a spelling error.
Further to the above comment, I can appreciate that the poster was not as familiar with the word “farther” as with the word “further,” but the farther I travel the further I become aware of the subtle difference between the meaning of “further” & “farther”.
Dear Christina, Ref your note copied below I concur totally with your view. I only looked it up now as I was just reading some USA stuff where I know they meant further but used farther instead – btw how do they differentiate between father and farther?
Mike ww Liverpool
Christina
March 13, 2015 at 7:29 pm
As a Canadian English speaker (and professional writer/editor), there is no context in which I would use farther. The further/farther distinction appears to me to be exclusively American.
Dear Mr. Walling:
You ask “how do they differentiate between father and farther?” In American English, the “r” following vowels is pronounced in most regions, so the difference is easy enough to detect. Even in parts of the Northeastern United States where the “r” sound is sometimes dropped after a vowel, the vowel’s pronunciation is usually extended a little. It might be written as “fawtheh.”
I frequently work with students who are not native English speakers. They soon learn that vowel sounds are somewhat flexible in English. This discussion illustrates that and may explain why “further” is nowadays recognized as the comparative of “far” in many places.
Although most of the comments mention the Oxford English Dictionary, the Cambridge Essential English Dictionary clearly lists farther as:
farther
adjective, adverb UK /ˈfɑːðər/
comparative of far: more distant:
I couldn’t walk any farther.
Therefore, even in the UK, there is a distinction between them.
This American writer notes that the UK pronunciation guide above drops the “r” sound. Since most places in North America still pronounce the “r,” there is a noticeable difference between “father” and “farther” that is not evident in Britain.
Proof of exclusive usage of “further” in UK English is easily found by watching BBC News and other BBC programs (oops, programmes). If David Attenborough says “We travelled further into the forest”, I’m not one to argue the matter…
Burns my ears to ear “Farther” always assumed it an Americanism.
Dickens uses further for both
“The man moved a little further away, as soon as he could, and the mender of roads fanned himself with his blue cap: feeling it mightily close and oppressive.”
Dear Uncle,
Like many “Americanisms,” it did originate in England, but stayed on in North America while it apparently changed in the Old Country. The Authorized Version (a.k.a. the King James Version) of the Bible (1611) uses “farther” in Mark 10:1 KJV, for example. Jane Austen’s Emma uses it 44 times.
I am British. I have just come across “farther” in an American English speaker’s blog post. I looked it up as I have not seen it before, and that’s what led me to this web page.
I’m a native speaker of English English. There is one use of farther, which many UK natives are not aware about, but they would understand and probably agree that it is correct English. I just came across it because I was curious about the difference in usage between the terms. When “farther” is used as an adjective, in certain contexts, it sounds very odd to replace it by further, even in UK English:
“It was farther to the shop than I expected”
I emphasise the word “probably [agree the sentence is correct]” because, as far as I am concerned, if I had seen a non-native write the above sentence I would have marked him down before seeing it on the Cambridge dictionary website.
From:
https://dictionary.cambridge.org/grammar/british-grammar/farther-farthest-or-further-furthest
https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/farther
Thank you for the links. As an American, one source I look to for British English is the Authorized Version (a.k.a. King James Version) of the Bible, the standard Bible text on both continents for 350 years. It uses the word “farther,” in the expression “farther side of the Jordan,” similar to the example from the online Cambridge Dictionary of “farther shore.” It uses it three other times. As best we know, British English pronunciation was not yet using the non-rhotic r back in 1611. As more Brits began “dropping their r‘s,” I suspect further became more common.
Sorry JBair, I don’t think there are any native Bible English speakers who are alive today. I am not sure if there ever was one. Today, further is not just more common than farther, the latter is practically unheard of.
Thanks for the note. As we have stated elsewhere, we will use various versions of the Bible to check on grammar and usage practices because we figure that Bible translators are not going to want to suggest God uses poor grammar or usage. See, for example, https://englishplus.com/news/news1008.htm. Using the Authorized Version also demonstrates that the term was used and recognized in England and was not an “Americanism” since the first permanent English settlement in North America began in 1607. As popular British etymologist Susie Dent says, “So many of the ‘Americanisms’ we hate were once ours.”