0

My sentences:
(1a) Bob read more books than Fred. — We compare two nouns: "Bob" and "Fred".
(1b) Bob read more books than Fred did. — We compare two phrases: "Bob read" and "Fred did".

Sentences from here:
(2a) This fact makes the Korean language much simpler than English. — We compare two noun phrases: "the Korean language" and "English".
(2b) This fact makes the Korean language much simpler than English is. — We compare two phrases: X and "English is".

I can't find the parallelism in (2b) and, therefore, I can't understand the method by which (2b) was made up. Could you tell me please what X is equal to?

Improve this question
9
  • 1
    As FumbleFingers said of your previous question, "this question looks like a pointless exercise." The addition of did in the first sentence and of is in the second don't alter the meaning of either. The sentences are more elegant without the added word. Meaning and elegance might be more important to a language-learner than parallelism.
    – Old Brixtonian
    Commented Sep 7, 2022 at 22:24
  • @OldBrixtonian I can't understand your logic. You go by the sentence "this question looks like a pointless exercise." But "pointless" to whom? Obvious, if I asked it, to me it's not pointless.
    – Loviii
    Commented Sep 7, 2022 at 22:34
  • 1
    Your logic is incorrect. Sentence 1a does not compare "Bob" and "Fred". Furthermore, parallelism is not required in comparisons with "than". Are you getting this information from somewhere, and if so, where?
    – MarcInManhattan
    Commented Sep 8, 2022 at 2:51
  • @MarcInManhattan This information was created by me in an attempt to understand the algorithm of building sentences with "than". "Sentence 1a does not compare "Bob" and "Fred"." - could you tell me why? Thanks.
    – Loviii
    Commented Sep 8, 2022 at 3:05
  • 1
    There isn 't parallelism . Language isn't what somebody thinks it should be, or what somebody makes up rules for, but what people actaually say - and if the rules don't account for that, then the rules are incomplete or wrong. Having said that, I find 2b to be awkward, and I would not intentionally say (or write) it myself. But I'm not surprised that some people do.
    – Colin Fine
    Commented Sep 8, 2022 at 8:57

2 Answers 2

Reset to default
1

In (2a), English stands for the English language, so the sentence directly compares two languages. The poster on WordReference doesn't say that (2b) is better than (2a), only better than the other version suggested by the questioner.

I was always taught that (1b) was the strictly correct version, although of course (1a) is perfectly acceptable in everyday conversation. The sentence compares the number of books read by Bob with the number read by Fred, not with Fred himself.

Improve this answer
0

I'll try to answer my question.

I think we can add "be" to "(2a)" & "(2b)":
(2a) + be: This fact makes the Korean language be much simpler than English.
(2b) + be: This fact makes the Korean language be much simpler than English is.

Therefore, there is parallelism between "the Korean language be" and "English is".

Improve this answer

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .