Is the following quote correct English?
Strength cannot beat more strength without ju jitsu
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1Which aspect(s) are you concerned about the correctness of? The spelling of ju jitsu, or the wording, or the capitalisation, or…?– PLLCommented Feb 20, 2011 at 19:28
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I agree with PLL; in a question tagged with spelling, and asking if the sentence is correct, I would understand the question is about spelling.– avpadernoCommented Feb 20, 2011 at 19:52
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my bad, I will re-tag it.– IAdapterCommented Feb 20, 2011 at 20:17
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@Dori I was wondering if the quote was correct, thats it. there is nothing more here. it sounded like it was not grammatically correct.– IAdapterCommented Feb 21, 2011 at 8:33
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4 Answers
The quote
Strength cannot beat more strength without ju jitsu
may sound awkwardly phrased to some, but it is correct in every grammatical sense. This is readily apparent if one considers strength and more strength personified.
Of course not -- there are many martial arts that can do the job ;o).
On a more relevant and grammatical note, this would be more correct:
Strength cannot beat greater strength without Ju Jitsu.
More would be appropriate if strength were something that came in units rather than in degree.
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not really. please watch UFC1 and see what I mean. it was proven. your theory is not.– IAdapterCommented Feb 20, 2011 at 20:24
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2Note that the term martial arts encompasses such things as marksmanship and archery as well as hand-to-hand combat techniques. And there's the fact many hand-to-hand disciplines also involve a code of ethics that would prohibit contests like UFC matches because of the understanding that the surest means of incapacitating an opponent is to kill him.– byeCommented Feb 20, 2011 at 21:02
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2Um, no. You may disagree all you want, but history is against you.– byeCommented Feb 20, 2011 at 22:32
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4Martial arts literally means arts of war, and the phrase has been around the English language for a lot longer than Asian-derived hand-to-hand fighting techniques have been with us in the English-speaking world.– byeCommented Feb 20, 2011 at 22:47
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1@Jimi: Not in the sense used here. When describing an attribute, one would normally use "stronger" or "greater strength"; "more strength" would be used more in the sense of "put your back into it" or "it needs more elbow grease". It's subtle, but different.– byeCommented Feb 22, 2011 at 6:42
Grammatically, I think that your statement is fine, but I'd find it easier to understand if you included the subject in the sentence:
One cannot beat a stronger opponent without ju jitsu.
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its a quote, so I would rather not change it. thx for responce.– IAdapterCommented Feb 20, 2011 at 20:19
In a comment, I asked:
What exactly is the question here? You said that "its [sic] a quote, so I would rather not change it." So if you aren't asking about spelling, and you aren't asking about rephrasing—what are you asking?
And just so you know: in American English, it's almost always spelled jiu jitsu.
The OP replied:
I was wondering if the quote was correct, thats it. there is nothing more here. it sounded like it was not grammatically correct.
Is the quote correct? I can't say for sure, but I can say that there are zero Google hits for that full phrase (other than to this page, which I figure doesn't count).
Similar phrases I did find:
"Strength cannot beat more strength without Gracie Jiu jitsu.."
—Twitter/@Dartford BJJ"Brute strength cannot beat amazingness."
—comment on Who Is the Strongest Person in the World?"Size and strength cannot beat style and technique"
—comment on What Brock's loss means to me..."Brute strength cannot beat a technical fighter."
—comment on Kimbo wants another shot at Sean Gannon"Strength cannot beat superior strength; but, superior skill can beat superior strength."
—comment on Yashai Warcraft Discussion Board"The best strength cannot beat technique"
—Dakota Rehbein's Page
Overall, there's very few hits for this, so I wouldn't call it a common saying. And it's definitely not a common saying about jiu jitsu.
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its from YouTube video, but I bet the orginal was "Strength cannot beat more strength without Gracie Jiu jitsu.." :) nice find :) its not common, but it sounds cool and right :P its about fedor vs. big foot fight. fedor could have won that fight if he had better technique.– IAdapterCommented Feb 21, 2011 at 12:15