Diferente de o a

[Watsawetzel]

Hi,

I'm sure this has been covered on this forum somewhere, but I was having some trouble finding it.

When saying something is different than something else, are the phrases "diferente de" and "diferente a" completely interchangeable?

Also, when I ran across this, I was trying to express this thought "The accent here is different than in England." I know I can say "El accento aqui está diferente de el accento en Englaterra", but how would I say it without having to repeat "el accento" twice in the sentence? Would it be something like "El accento aqui está diferente de en Englaterra"?

Sorry again if this is a repeat and thanks for the help.

[Rusty]

The preposition you use with 'ser diferente' can be either 'de' or 'a', if a noun, pronoun or a group of nouns follows the preposition.

When what is different is an adverbial phrase, as it is in your case, 'es diferente' is followed by 'que'.

El acento aquí es diferente que en Inglaterra.

I would use a pronoun so you don't have to repeat the same word twice:
El acento aquí es diferente del de Inglaterra.
-or-
El acento aquí es diferente al de Inglaterra.

[Watsawetzel]

That clears it up nicely and thank you for correcting my misspellings and lack of accents ;)

[Rusty]

You're welcome.
I made a correction myself and added more clarification.