Are these correct?
Health is above wealth.
No one is above the law.
The old man is above ninety.
I am above forty.
if it's OK, can you please give me another example?
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When speaking of people's ages, it's more usual to say 'over ninety'. "Above the law" is OK - it's an idiom meaning "too powerful to have to obey the law". A similar expression is "above suspicion", meaning "too well-respected to be readily suspected of wrong-doing". You can say that someone values health above wealth, but with is I would use 'more important than'.– Kate BuntingCommented Nov 25, 2019 at 16:29
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1 Answer
Health is above wealth.
No one is above the law.
These are correct use. "above" indicates the preceding concept or idea is more important than the following or in some way takes priority,
The old man is above ninety.
I am above forty.
These are not strictly correct, but are intelligible - English speakers will understand you but you will sound awkward.
Better are "The old man is older than ninety" and "I am older than forty". You can also use "over": "The old man is over ninety [years old]".
(Some people will say "better than" if they want to be careful about not invoking the stigma of age; you might see "for active adults better than 75 years of age" on a retirement home advertisement.)
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Another (very common) example of "above" with "to be" is if you want to indicate physical position: "The sky is above the Earth".– BadZenCommented Nov 25, 2019 at 17:46
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The opposite of "above" is "below", (but we don't use below to indicate importance: no one would say "wealth is below health".)– BadZenCommented Nov 26, 2019 at 16:54
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