LAST EDITED ON 07-31-06 AT 02:44 PM (EST)

>I've asked everyone that I know
>and none of them say
>"Sooner Rather Than Later".
>They either say "Than Later"
>or the say "or Later".
> The phrase has been
>around forever, before BB was
>even thought of.

....no, the phrase "sooner rather than later" has been around forever. The phrase sooner than later has not been around at all because it doesn't exist! Its just some backwater uneducated white trash bastardization of the phrase. Myself, I've never heard it said UNTIL BB3. Since then I've only heard it said incorrectly on BB and on this message board. But, maybe that's because I hang out with educated people. Although some of my clients have probably said it and I just didn't catch it. After all, my clients have already invented such non-words as "flustrated" and "agreance".

As for the phrase "sooner or later", as was pointed out above by OFG and assuming you can read, that HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH THIS AND IS AN ENTIRELY DIFFERENT PHRASE. If you can't see the difference between the two phrases and can't understand how they are different in meaning then you are beyond repair in this regard and should just sit the rest of this discussion out, probably at your local A&W or whatever else passes for commerce in your part of the world.

>
>So what I'm wondering is what
>is supposedly the correct phrase
>and what proof do we
>have of this?

...you're kidding right? You honestly need proof as to the proper way to say "sooner rather than later" as opposed to "sooner than later" and you can't figure out on your own how one is the right way and one doesn't even make sense????

And
>why does it even matter
>what people say?

...it doesn't matter what people say, unless of course you are trying to see if there is a connection between media/pop culture and its influnece on popular speech patterns. But, if you can't tell the difference between those sayings anyway I'm guessing this might be a little above you anyway. So just move on, you're gonna end uf huring your head if stick around this thread much longer.