Stop It, Stop It, STOP IT !
The Grammar Guru cannot take it anymore! “Low and behold,” “roads to hoe,” “lines to tow,” “here, here!” and “he has more then me.” WHAT is this world coming to that even simple, everyday expressions cannot be accurately spelled?
The phrase, dear friends, is Lo, and behold! As is “lo, the angel appeared unto Mary.” Think of it as short for “hello” if it helps you to remember. It’s an ancient, almost archaic word. In fact, Lo would be archaic except for its retention in phrases like “Lo, and behold.” And yes, there should ALWAYS be a comma after Lo. If you’re going to spell it right, you might as well punctuate it right, too.
One cannot hoe a road. It’s impossible, folks. The hoe is far too small to adequately meet the purpose, and the asphalt (or even packed dirt) would ruin the edge of your tool. If one has a daunting, time-consuming task on hand, one has a tough ROW to hoe. This expression comes from (surprise!) farming. One hoes a plot of land into rows of carefully turned dirt so that one can plant crops. If there are lots of weeds and rocks, or stumps and roots, it’s a tough row to hoe.
Likewise, one does not “tow the line;” one “toes the line.” This idiom refers to runners at the beginning of a race. They line up on the start line with their toes on or slightly behind the line. It may also refer to sailors standing in formation. In any case, it literally means to line one’s toes up with a given mark. Figuratively, it means to follow the rules with scrupulous care.
Where on EARTH did people get the idea that the exclamation of approval often shouted at political rallies is “here, here!”? It’s NOT. It’s “hear, hear!”
Hear means to use your ears or your hearing aid to listen to something that is being said. If you agree with someone’s statement emphatically, you say, “Hear, hear!” Here means in this exact place. So you can say, “I can’t hear you because there is a crazed iguana screeching in here.” The only time you may say “Here, here” is when you are trying to get someone to put something in a specific place and they are being obtuse.
And then there’s the question of when to use “than” and when to use “then.” Really, I have never understood the confusion between the two, as they bear no resemblance to one another, not even in pronunciation.
Then, which is correctly pronounced /thehn/, not /thin/ or /thn/, is a word marking the passage of time. It can indicate past time, as in We knew how to handle unruly children then. Or it can indicate future time, as in You’re getting married soon; maybe then you will understand. Then can also indicate a conditional outcome: If you don’t stop that, then the dog will bite you.
Than, which is correctly pronounced /tha’n/, not /thn/, is a comparative word and is always used thus: Mike is taller than Sam, but Sam gets better grades than Mike.
Remember that than is always comparative, and ask yourself “Am I comparing two things or am I talking about a point in time?” If you use this memory tool, then you will not misuse these two words.