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There are 3 scenarios and I want to contrast the first with the second and the third. So on one side there is one single scenario and on the other side there is 2 scenarios. I like to use "former" and "latter" to refer to these two sides as in the following sentence:

The first case can not be compared with the second and the third cases, because the material used in the former is water-based while the one used in the latter is oil-based.

But then there seems to be an ambiguity in terms of plurality/singularity of what "latter" is referred to; it seems to me that "latter" has the connotation that there is just one scenario in the second side of the contrast. Is there any way to overcome this ambiguity? It seems to me that "latters" in plural is not a word.

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  • You can't just say the others or the rest?
    – Yosef Baskin
    Commented Jul 10, 2017 at 12:37
  • Can you give an example of what you would like to say?
    – SteveES
    Commented Jul 10, 2017 at 12:42
  • Because 'former' and 'latter' depend on the preceding context, you need to give the preceding sentence so that we know what you're talking about. Also, 'latters' is not a word. But that is not really the answer to your question. Are you talking about a list of more than two things? Anyway, give the preceding sentence
    – Mitch
    Commented Jul 10, 2017 at 12:48
  • @Mitch Edited accordingly.
    – Sasan
    Commented Jul 10, 2017 at 13:09
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    Thanks for the edit. When you have more than two items, you don't really use 'former'/'latter'. You use ordinals like 'first', 'second', 'last', 'the rest'.
    – Mitch
    Commented Jul 10, 2017 at 14:05

3 Answers 3

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I would not use either 'former' or 'latter' when making comparisons between more than two items, just like you should not use 'better' or 'worse' when describing one from many. 'Best' and 'worst' are preferred in that case.

If Alice scores 10 and Jim scores 5, the better student has scored twice as much as the worse. If Bob has also scored 3, then the best student has scored more then three times the worst.

Similarly 'first' and 'last' are preferred when considering order of more than two things.

I would write your sentence as:

The first case can not be compared with the second and the third cases, because the material used in the first is water-based while the material used in the others is oil-based.

I would probably also use a pronoun to avoid repeating 'first', but I leave that as an exercise for the reader.

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I, sometimes, find fine to repeat the same words but shift the order you have to add emphasis. In this case I would say:

The first case can not be compared with the second and the third cases, because, in the first case the material used is water-based, while in the second and third case it is oil-based.

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The first case can not be compared with the second and the third cases, because the material used in the former is water-based while the one used in the latter •cases• is oil-based.

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    Please don't just re-write the sentence. Explain why you're right (I don't think you are here, but might be convinced).
    – Andrew Leach ♦
    Commented Jul 10, 2017 at 13:40
  • It's not what I would say, but adding 'cases' after the word 'latter' clarifies that 'latter' is referring to BOTH of the other two, not just the 3rd one. I would say, "The first case ... because the material used in the first is water-based while the one used in the other two is oil-based," and dispense with 'former' and 'latter' because of the ambiguity. However, the original question as I understood it specifically wanted to use 'former' and 'latter', so this is one way to do it. Another is to say "...in the latter two cases is oil based."
    – Web Puddin
    Commented Jul 10, 2017 at 13:46
  • @AndrewLeach - Please don't just say "I don't think you are right here," but explain why. I fail to see what is 'wrong' with my suggestion, but I might be convinced. I think there are multiple ways to say the same thing, and 'right' or 'wrong' I find curious unless you can show it's grammatically incorrect.
    – Web Puddin
    Commented Jul 10, 2017 at 13:59
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    @WebPuddin I think your use of cases is fine. However, the onus is on you as the poster to justify your own answer.
    – Lawrence
    Commented Jul 10, 2017 at 14:12

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