That’s because I knew both were about distance, I just thought the right one was whichever sounded better in the sentence. Turns out there is a difference.
Farther is for physical distance. Further is for a metaphorical distance.
So if you can replace the answer with miles, feet, or centimeters then the right word is farther. For example, I’m farther away from Far, Far, Away than I was when I lived in Disneyland. And I need more coffee before I can get any further involved in this project.
Make sense now?
I a a grammar Nazi–love this post! And funny how we discover new things about the English language every day!
Laura,
It really is practically every day for me. I’m not as strong in grammar as I would like to be, but I am improving!
Thanks for reading!
Aurora
one can argue that it can go both ways
That is true, however, having grammatical rules to differentiate is the basis for justifying using either word.
Aurora