For example:
James was talking to Karl, the former being much smarter than the latter.
Is James the former or the latter? What is the rule?
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3I'm not sure why this question was asked here, when the answer is so easily and readily found.– J.R. ♦Jan 26, 2013 at 10:23
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@J.R. It's asked here because I don't want to have to keep referring to a dictionary every time I want to know whether to use former or latter. If I know the rule then that is a lot easier to remember than some dictionary definition.– Matt EllenJan 26, 2013 at 12:53
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If that's the case, then I think your question would have been much improved had you elaborated about how you often confuse the two, and are looking for a handy, memorable way to keep the two straight. As it is, you've simply asked us to clarify something very basic. Notice, too, that the results I linked to (like this one and this one) are not dictionary definitions, but easily found mnemonic tricks with detailed explanations.– J.R. ♦Jan 26, 2013 at 14:53
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3 Answers
Basically: "former" = "first item in a pair", "latter" = "second item in a pair".
So, in your case, "the former" is James, while "the latter" is Karl.
The mnemonic I learned in school was (F)ormer is (F)irst and (L)atter is (L)ast, so James is the former and Karl is the latter.
answered Jan 23, 2013 at 21:17
"Former" comes before, and "latter" comes later.
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4Except when you're asking about the latter and the former, in which case the former comes later, and the latter comes before. ;^)– J.R. ♦Jan 26, 2013 at 11:31
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@J.R. -- +1 for the wink. I was, of course, trying to tie the pronunciations, but you've got me on the positioning aspect. Jan 26, 2013 at 13:27