When imagining a place, not a specific place that I want to visit, which is more appropriate to use:
- ( high as much it could be )
or
- ( high as much it can be )
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2What are you trying to express? Something like "as high as possible"? I'm afraid that neither alternative makes sense to me.– user230Commented Dec 17, 2014 at 14:43
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@CopperKettle That's not entirely clear to me either. (What's the constraining factor?)– user230Commented Dec 17, 2014 at 19:34
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@snailboat - I tried to construe a sentence in which it would've been handy to analyze the difference between can and could as probably sought by Anna, but it seems I wasn't particularly successful.– CowperKettleCommented Dec 17, 2014 at 22:09
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2 Answers
Use "as high as could be" not "high as much it {could/can} be".
As you stated, this is something that does not exist. You don't know that it "can" be that high. But you wish that it "could" be. So you use "could" for the hypothetical (not real) thing.
Neither. You don't need 'as much.'
The bird's nest was as high as it could be. (For your sentence it sounds like this is what you are going for) The bird's nest was much higher than I could reach with a ladder.
'As much high' is simply incorrect.
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1It would be good if you were to clearly state that "could" is better than "can" for a hypothetical place (if that's what you think), as that was OP's query. Commented Jan 17, 2015 at 4:53