Instead of continuing my entries on commas, I’ve decided to give the little gray cells a break and do something relatively easy. I’m not sure why I’ve always confused than and then. Maybe it’s because they sound the same, but it’s probably because I use then so much more than I use than that I just got in a habit of typing the ‘e’ instead of ‘a.’

So, I looked it up and distilled what I learned to the simplest terms. Than is a conjunction for comparson/contrast and then is an adverb, noun/pronoun, and adjective for time and logic.

I’m younger than my sisters. Comparison

I’m the oldest then my brother and baby sister. Order or sequence.

Mrs. Hurd is stricter than Mrs. White. Contrast.

Tonight, I must cook dinner and wash the dishes then I can watch TV. Time sequence

That’s simple. And someone made it even easier by saying than has an ‘a’ in it like comparison/contrast, while then has an ‘e’ like in time.