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this post is discussing "easier to read" topic.

Is "have greater readability than" or "easier to read than" not idiomatic?

Appending to this sentence, Which following one is more appropriate?

expression_1 Is "have greater readability than" or "easier to read than" not idiomatic, or both?

expression_2 Is "have greater readability than" or "easier to read than" not idiomatic, or neither?

according to the context, at least one of them is not idiomatic.

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  • I'm not entirely sure what's being asked here. The original sentence is not claiming that one of the phrases is unidiomatic. It's asking if either of them is unidiomatic. And changing that meaning into something else, and then tacking on either both or neither, makes it all the more confusing as well as ungrammatical. In short, neither of your revisions are appropriate at all. Jul 18, 2019 at 15:58

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If you're assuming that one of the phrases is not idiomatic and both might not be idiomatic, then you would say

Is 'have greater readability than' or 'easier to read than' not idiomatic, or both?

It would be even better to repeat the question to make it more clear.

Is 'have greater readability than' or 'easier to read than' not idiomatic, or are both not idiomatic?

If you want to use 'neither' instead of 'both', then you don't need the word 'not' for negation. 'Neither' is the negating word. So you could say

Is either 'have greater readability than' or 'easier to read than' idiomatic, or is neither?

Just so you're aware, both phrases are idiomatic, although 'easier to read' is plainer and more accessible to many speakers.

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  • So they are, but if you want to be understood 'easier to read than' is plainer English than 'have greater readability than'. And what is more, the phrase 'greater readability than' suggests that there is some numerical scale of readability. Unless you are writing about such a scale it would be better to avoid suggesting to the reader that there is such a thing.
    – JeremyC
    Jul 18, 2019 at 21:36
  • @JeremyC I disagree that there needs to be a scale other than one is easier than the other - in other words, the scale goes from easy to hard, with two values. I'll add your suggestion that 'easier to read' is plainer, although that's not the question that was asked.
    – dwilli
    Jul 19, 2019 at 1:31

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