Questions tagged [comparatives]
The form of an adjective or adverb used to compare two or more things. English comparatives are formed with the suffixes -er/-est or the words more/most.
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One less thing to worry about
I am not a native English speaker but I usually feel comfortable speaking or writing in English. I also have a linguistic background. But this morning I finished a task, wiped it from my white board, ...
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How to use comparatives with processive nouns? [closed]
I wonder which of the following is/are correct?
a. The national flag of Malaysia has more colours than Japan's.
b. The national flag of Malaysia has more colours than Japan.
c. Malaysia's national ...
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Transformation of sentences from positive to comparative
The question was to transform this sentence from positive to comparative degree:
She is not so young as I expected.
Following the solutions of other sentences of this kind (the photo shows a similar ...
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Flatter vs. comparative adjective of flat?
Flatter means to praise someone highly.
But then how to express that something is more flat than something else? Well, some sources say the comparative form of flat is just "more flat", but ...
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Why are some adjectives noncomaparable? [duplicate]
As far as I was taught and read in various places (examples: 1, 2), some adjectives in English are not comparable, which is that they don't have comparative and superlative forms. Why is that? I think ...
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Why is "at least" unnatural here? "It won't take at least 15 minutes to walk there."
(1) It won't take at least 15 minutes to walk there.
(2) It won't take more than 15 minutes to walk there.
Am I right in thinking (2) sounds natural but (1) doesn't?
If so, what is the reason for ...
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Uses of definite article before comparative degree [closed]
Here are two sentences from a grammar book:
"He is the stronger of the two."
"Reena is smarter than any other student of her class."
In the first sentence, the definite article (...
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Is "I wanted to have written something more round" correct? Or do I have to use "rounder"? Or is only well-rounded is acceptable?
Is "I wanted to have written something more round" correct? Or do I have to use "rounder"?
I think that I hear more people saying "This should be more round", than "...
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What is the correct sentence [duplicate]
Which one is correct?
Two thirds of the crop is destroyed.
or:
Two thirds of the crop are destroyed.
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When did double superlatives go out of fashion in English?
Today I learned that the correct/recommended form of English, only a few centuries ago, required using "more" and "most" together with adjectives that were already in (respectively)...
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Is there a rule distinguishing what kind of verbs can only take more/most?
My theory is that dynamic verbs can take either more/most or better/best but the meaning will change.
I sleep more than him.
This means I sleep longer hours (quantity) than him.
I sleep better than ...
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Use of 'Happiest' in wishing birthday?
Recently, I have seen some people writing:
'Happiest birthday, John'
What exactly does this mean? Happiest implies a comparison with something, but the phrase is usually used without any context that ...
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Is "different than" ungrammatical? [closed]
THIS IS NOT A DUPLICATE QUESTION. This question does not duplicate that question that is cited that this question is a duplicate of, as was already fully explored and explained in the body of this ...
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Julie's guests arrived slightly earlier/ more early
The task is 'Complete the sentences by changing the words in brackets into comparative adverbs'.
The sentence is 'Julie's guests arrived slightly ... (early) than she expected'.
Finally, the answer is ...
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Nuances between 'more' and 'better' (than something) [duplicate]
For this sentence, which one is correct or more suitable, 'more' or 'better'; or are they both equally valid? Are there any nuances between them?
I like baseball ______ than soccer.
Please give a ...
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What is the usage of "considerably" outside of comparative constructs?
I have noticed that all the examples for "considerably" in Lexico (which is based on the OED, I believe?) are comparatives:
considerably [adverb]:
By a notably large amount or to a notably ...
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Is using "complete" as a gradable adjective ok in some situations?
So in writing, I want to express various degrees of completion. Originally, I used "in a more complete implementation". A reviewer remarked that this was wrong, as complete is not gradable. ...
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You know me best X You know me better [closed]
What's the difference between "best" and "better" in these sentences:
"You know me BEST as Ash Ketchum on Pokemon"
"If you want to know me BETTER professionally, ask ...
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"X is less effective than y in treating the disease" or "X is less effective in treating the disease than y"?
Should it be,
"PT with selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs)is less effective than CT in treating anxiety"
or,
"PT with selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) is less ...
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When can you form the comparative of 'sorry'? [closed]
Is sorry in the phrase “I’m sorry” an adverb or an adjective?
In other, more practical words, is a comparative response to that, such as “Sure, but I’m even sorrier!”, considered grammatically correct?...
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I know more than you do about X
I think these mean the same thing:
(1) I know more about X than you do.
(3) I know more than you do about X.
In (1), the preposition phrase (PP) about X is part of the main clause, and the ...
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"biggest failure" versus "greatest failure" [closed]
Which one is the correct way to say it?
"War is and always remains one of the biggest human failures."
or
"War is and always remains one of the greatest human failures."
Or are ...
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up by 6% over ANY previous year?
What does this "up by 6% over any previous year"?
Since 2019, Clarksville-Montgomery County has added over 6,000 new jobs and, even with the decline in travel from the pandemic, in the last ...
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"as each other" as used to compare two things
I've nevr come across such comparative pattern as in this sentence (it's taken out of an English text book): But Lucy and Sam are as forgetful as each other.
What's the meaning of the structure? Is it ...
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What one-syllable adjectives can take "more" as comparative?
I teach ESL. My job is to stop people saying "more big" instead of "bigger". "Fun", as noted on this site, is an exception, I think because the noun, meaning "...
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quantifiers in comparatives adjectives [closed]
Good morning. I'd like to ask you something. I was confused about these words. They said " a bit, a little, slightly, a lot, and much" are all intensifiers in comparative sentences. But ...
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What are the comparative/superlative forms of the adjective "well," meaning "in good health"?
If I can say, "He is well," meaning, "He is in good health," how do I express that he's in better health, or that he's in the best health ever? "He's weller"? "He's ...
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Why are comparative adjectives used here, with the definite article? "...a hatred, the deeper for being concealed..."
In this sentence, the article 'the' precedes several comparative adjectives: 'deeper', 'bitter', 'greater', and 'stronger'. Now, for context, this sentence is the beginning of a text, and the ...
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Comparative Construction - She can get through more work in an hour than I can get through in a day
I was reading the Comparative Construction Chapter from The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language by Pullum and Huddlestone.
There on page 1109, I came across one sentence:
He is more afraid of ...
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Is using “to a less extent” rather than “to a lesser extent” grammatically wrong today?
The expression to a lesser extent meaning “less strongly or not so much” is commonly found with the comparative form of less.
Curiously, Google Books shows that “to a less extent” was initially, ...
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"Fairly" can't be used with comparatives or negatives
Don't use ‘fairly’ in front of a comparative form, *the train is
fairly quicker than the bus; in more formal writing, you use rather
or somewhat.
https://www.wordreference.com/EnglishUsage/fairly
...
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NEGATIVES WITH COMPARATIVES [closed]
This listening question is confusing me
(woman): Have you gotten over your cold yet?
(man): I couldn’t be feeling any better today.
(narrator): What does the man mean?
a. He’s feeling terrific.
b. He ...
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"Hair no more streaked with grey than was becoming" – meaning & grammar [closed]
I was reading Jeffrey Archer's Kane and Abel, where on page 191 I found this line:
William began to be aware of his housemaster's wife during his last two terms at St. Paul's. She was a good-looking ...
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Double comparatives: "more preferable"
Fowler reads
Sometimes the double comparative form more preferable is used.
The word more is of course unnecessary, since preferable by itself
means ‘more desirable (than)’. Like other comparatives,...
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Does "than" introduce a potential ambiguity? [closed]
source: an FT news article (paywalled, but searchable)
Chief among these [obstacles] is Europe’s reluctance to view China with the same existential concern as America does. The continent does more ...
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Morphological comparison of adjectives ending in "-ic"
Page 267 of Fowler's Dictionary of Modern English Usage reads
Adjectives ending in -ic (comic, rustic, etc.), -ive (active,
restive, etc.), and -ous (famous, odious, virtuous, etc.) do not have
-er ...
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'Less good' vs 'worse'
Garner's fourth , page 263, reads
Depend typically takes on (or, less good, upon). When a clausal complement follows the verb, to omit the on is a casualism—
Is good here an adverb?
Why not use ...
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Comparative adverb vs. comparative adjective
I am a little torn on which usage is correct here, the comparative adjective "easier" or the comparative adverb "more easily."
Every other day this year will begin easier than ...
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The disaster we worried about "most" or "the most"?
I heard a Ted talk say
When I was a kid, the disaster we worried about most was a nuclear
war.
I wonder why it was not "the disaster we worried about THE most"?
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Comparative adverb
I was taught that object of a preposition is always a noun, but I have often seen that a comparison adverb comes immediately after a preposition, then a noun phrase preceded by an adverb comes, which ...
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"as" or "than" in comparative constructions
Is it usually as or than that is used in such constructions as the following?
Twice as many men said they liked action movies as/than comedies.
Twice as many customers ordered pizza as/than Caesar ...
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The number is smaller, fewer or less than?
I always make confusion about the correct usage of the comparative for "irregular" adjectives (I don't know if this is the correct term).
Recently I had to write "the number of X is ...
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Can I say 'This transmitter extends three times signal range than the other one'? [closed]
I'm not sure if I should use 'than' or 'from' in this sentence > "This transmitter extends three times signal range than the other one". Please advise. Thanks.
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Are "compared to" and "with respect to" interchangeable?
For example:
The results showed higher stability for the first enzyme compared to the second one.
Would this sentence have the same meaning if I changed compared to with with respect to?
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I seek grammatical justification for "I did more than finish the job"
I see people say such examples as "I did more than finish the job", "He did more than win the game".
In such cases, "finish the job", which is a bare infinitival, occurs ...
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Is "Our creamiest coffee, now creamier" correct?
Kopiko's tagline here in the Philippines became a hot topic. Others had been saying that it is grammatically wrong but others said that it is correct.
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Is there a linguistic term for the phrases, which describe a noun, with subjective value (below)
a pitted excuse for a road
a big bear of a man
a gigantic furious beast of a man
a wisp of a boy/girl
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Writing a comparative sentence with two comparative parameters [closed]
Consider two aqueous solutions:
Solution 1
Solution 2
Then note that:
The temperature of the solution 1 is higher than that of the solution 2.
The pressure of the solution 1 is lower than that of ...
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'quickest': adverb
Page 442 of Collins Cobuild English Usage reads
Quick is an adjective. You do not usually use it as an adverb. Instead you use
quickly.
In writing, you usually use more quickly.
He began to speak ...
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Can we use adverbs with Comparative adjectives?
He is much taller than me.
Vs
He is incredibly taller than me.
Can we use incredibly here, with a comparative adjective(taller) ?
