Further Vs. Farther

One describes physical distance, the other figurative distance. In American English, these two words are not interchangeable.

This is how I imagine ants to be: grammatically correct and highly analytical. This drawing is a Meghan Robins original.

Further Vs. Farther

The grammatical nails-on-the-chalkboard confusion between “further” and “farther” is everywhere: movies, game night, even books for crying out loud! According to the Brits, further and farther are interchangeable, but here in reality they are two distinct words with two distinct uses. What is the purpose of language if not to let words have their own meanings? Why would we need two words doing the same thing? We don’t.

Here’s how I remember when to use further versus when to use farther:

Farther = Physical Distance. Far, far, far, faaaaarrrrrr…

Farther is used as an adverb or adjective and refers to a physical distance. If what you’re talking can actually be measured, in real life, with a tape measure, or mileage, or light years, use farther/farthest.

Farther has the word far tucked right in there like a memory keepsake. Is the town far away? Is your house farther than my house? Did you walk the farthest? Whenever you’re talking about physical distances, use far/farther/farthest to describe its relative location. Just to really break down the grammar (or skip ahead of when to use further):

Farther as adverb

• I ran farther than I thought.

  • “farther” modifies the verb “ran” = adverb

  • “farther” refers to a physical distance: I ran far. How far? Real far.

  • Back when I took language classes, we used to have to break down sentences by parts of speech, so for your grammatical pleasure:

    • I [subject] ran [verb] farther [adverb] than [conjunction] I [pronoun] thought [verb]. (If someone can grade me on these like our Irish-accented grammar teacher, please do.)

Farther as adjective

• The turn is farther down the road.

  • “farther” describes the turn. Imagine replacing this with another adjective like “curvy.” The turn is curvy. The turn is dangerous. The turn is farther. Curvy, dangerous, farther are all adjectives describing the turn.

  • “farther” refers to a physical distance. How far away is the turn?

  • Because I like doing this:

    • The [article] turn [noun] is [verb] farther [adjective] down [preposition] the [article] road [noun].

Further = Figurative Distance. Think u, u, u, uuuuuuu

Further, with a ‘u’ can be used as an adverb, adjective, and verb (so exciting)! If what you’re talking about cannot be physically measured, but is figurative, please use further. Need a trick to remember? Just like farther literally has the word “far” inside it, further has a ‘u’ like the word figuuuurative. Is what you’re talking about figurative, non-tangible, non-physical? Use the ‘u’ word, further.

For example, nothing could be further from the truth (truth = not easily located). Look no further! (Unless you are staring across an open field and someone tells you not to look farther than the next ridge line.) Let’s discuss this further (discussions = figurative, not physically measurable).

Further as adverb

• They further discussed the merits of metaphysics.

  • “further” refers to the amount of time, depth, or quality of their discussion.

  • Sentence breakdown (don’t you love these?)

    • They [subject] further [adverb] discussed [verb] the [article] merits [noun] of [proposition] metaphysics [noun].

Further as adjective

• I need further explanation.

  • “further” is the adjective describing “explanation.” Just like a clear explanation, better explanation, further explanation. All of these adjectives describe the noun.

  • Sentence breakdown:

    • I [subject] need [verb] further [adjective] explanation [noun].

Further as verb

• Don’t you want to further your grammatical prowess?

  • “further” is the action of this sentence.

  • Sentence breakdown:

    • Don’t [contraction/auxiliary verb] you [subject] want [verb] to further [verb] your [pronoun] grammatical [adjective] prowess [noun]?

Moral?

The moral of further vs farther is that despite what grammar schools in England might say, I am a staunch believer that these two words, spelt differently and with their own unique meanings, are NOT interchangeable. Even this cheeky New Yorker article doesn’t sway me, but certainly muddies the waters just enough to give you cart blanche not to overthink the most powerful tool we have that defines human existence: language.

Here’s what Substack’s AI image generator thinks an “ant hill with language” looks like. It even has an artist signature at the bottom… That’s nice.

What Did We learn?

Far, farther = physical distance.

U, further = figuuuurative distance.

As always, thank you for reading!