520: Farther versus Further May 11, 2016

Ultimately, standardized spelling does not matter unless to proceed without it would alter the intended interpretation. That being said, it is good to know the difference between 'farther' and 'further'. The simplest but generally accurate tip is that “farther” is for physical, measurable distance and “further” is for figurative distance. Hopefully that is not just an abstract rule, since 'farther' has the word 'far' embedded within. Still, sometimes the distinctions are less clear, such as in 'Billy was further/farther along in his work than Bonny', depending on how the speaker wishes to measure 'work'. Scholars themselves argue about these uses, so really, it does not make much of a difference.