Discussion Groups / English Usage / June 2009

They both sound right to me, although I'm with you on the preference for
"these".

Quoth HVS <usenet@REMOVETHISwhhvs.co.uk>, and I quote:

Fowler had no objections to "different to" either.

I see both as defensible POVs.
Another image for
"Under the circumstances": under the sky/umbrella provided by
circumstances, living under it.

Marius Hancu

And indeed I always used to prefer "under", though not exclusively; but
I use "in" a lot more since my "under" was criticized in AUE.

[...]

Writing about 40 years ago, Wilson Follett noted (_Modern American
Usage_) that British colloquial seemed to prefer "different to", with
British written use about evenly divided between "diffent to " and
"different from", whereas in the U.S., "different to" was almost never
heard or seen.  And, he added, "In both England and the United States
there is an increasing tendency to follow 'different' and 'differently'
with 'than'. . . . But [that] does not dispose of the educated American's
strong feeling that 'different from' is idiomatic and hence
inviolable . . . ."

There are arguments of logic and brevity of result that can be applied,
with varying results, to all three forms, making a choice seem almost
idiosyncratic.  But, as Follett further wrote, "There is always some
acceptable way of saying what is meant, and it is often better to find a
way around a linguistic thicket than to bull one's way through it."

Follett's recommendations--at least for simple sentences--were:

1. Substitute for "different" some other word that fits with "than" (such
as "other"); or,
2. keep "different" and substitute "from" for "than".

The choice, by implication, is decided by the writer's sense of felicity.

Garner also has a useful discussion--too long for summary--of the
considerations in choosing between "than" and "from".  It seems nobody
really likes "different to" any more these days.

[...]

All of which suggests a simple rule: that if the sense is "subject to",
use "under", otherwise use "in".  As already noted, the "circum-" part
means "surrounding", "ambient", so "under" makes no sense, and following
the rule allows a nice distinction between what merely is and what one is
bound by.

True, as Fowler long ago noted, "under" is also common in sense other than
"subject to", but my taste, at least, is to keep rational bases so long as
they do not seem wildly artificial, and "in the circumstances" has a long
way to go before it is even obsolescent, much less obsolete.

Though it can be.  Consider "under construction," "under consideration,"
"under discussion," and possibly "under arrest."

--Jeff