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I ran into this particular sentence today:

They shouldn't work more than they are now.

Though, I'd expect this sentence to be expressed as:

They shouldn't work more than they work now.

or:

They shouldn't be working more than they are now.

Is my conception of English wrong on that particular point or is the former sentence incorrect?

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    General Reference. The simplest change needed to make the first sentence valid is They shouldn't work more than they do now.
    – FumbleFingers
    Commented Sep 14, 2012 at 13:46
  • Oh right, your form is definitely better than my first edit proposal :) Do you have any formal backup so that I can better argue my point? Thanks!
    – Mog
    Commented Sep 14, 2012 at 13:50
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    You starting sentence is invalid, as you presumably realise. But there's nothing "wrong" with your suggested alternatives, and my version isn't "better" than either - it's just the smallest change needed to fix the original.
    – FumbleFingers
    Commented Sep 14, 2012 at 14:13
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    Although the the first form is not valid grammatically (work is something you do, not something you are), it does show up in hasty speech sometimes, where I would interpret it as a present progressive: "They shouldn't work more than they are [working] now."
    – Cameron
    Commented Sep 14, 2012 at 15:03
  • @downvoter: please provide comments about why you think this question is bad so that I can improve it
    – Mog
    Commented Sep 14, 2012 at 15:19

1 Answer 1

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A problem with that first sentence is that are does not belong with that form of work. Substitute do and that sentence becomes acceptable: “They shouldn’t work more than they do now.’

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  • This answer doesn't add much to FumbleFingers comment, so I'd rather have him post it if there's no further point to be made.
    – Mog
    Commented Sep 15, 2012 at 15:49
  • That's fine. My thought was that testing the secondary verb (are) with "work" is a quick way to flush out what made the sentence seem awkward.
    – Kristina Lopez
    Commented Sep 15, 2012 at 16:35

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