より details
Examples
than — marks the standard an item is compared against
今日は昨日より暑いね。
kyou wa kinou yori atsui ne.
It's hotter today than yesterday, huh. casual
弟は私より背が高い。
otouto wa watashi yori se ga takai.
My little brother is taller than I am. neutral
今年の売上は昨年より二割増えております。
kotoshi no uriage wa sakunen yori niwari fuete orimasu.
This year's sales are up twenty percent on last year. formal
from — stiff written substitute for から in announcements and letters
会議は十時より始めます。
kaigi wa juuji yori hajimemasu.
The meeting will begin at ten o'clock. formal
Formation
AはBより…attaches to noun phrase (schematic)
Notes
Related patterns
Similar
Two halves of one comparison frame — より marks the outdone standard, のほうが marks the winner; answers to どちらが questions take のほうが, and a bare より answer sounds clipped.
より ranks two named items against each other; いちばん ranks one member above its whole set (クラスの中で) — with only two members the superlative gives way back to より/のほうが.
Lookalikes
Both set A against benchmark B, but より rides a positive predicate while ほど…ない requires a negative one and presupposes B genuinely has the quality — Bより低い makes no such claim about B.