National Association of Certified Home Inspectors

Farther versus Further for Inspection Reports

by Nick Gromicko

Merriam-Webster Dictionary states that farther and further are interchangeable. However, recently, their use is becoming distinguished by grammarians. Here is the difference:

Farther should be used to show a relation to physical distance. “The downspout should discharge farther from the house.” A little trick is to see if an actual distance can be used in place of the word farther in your sentence: “The downspout should discharge 6 feet from the house.” If it can, you were correct in using farther.

Further should be used with abstract distance or depth, as in: “This problem should be investigated further by a roofing contractor.”

Digits and Hyphens in Inspection Reports

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