Which of the 2 is best?
He values her above all others.
He values her over all others.
I can't tell which sounds better and looking up in dictionaries amounted to nothing at least the ones I have looked at.
asked Dec 13, 2016 at 17:48
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1For what it's worth, Google Books claims 35 written instances of He values her above..., but only one instance of He values her over... It's just a stylistic choice, where any claimed distinction is just nit-picking for the sake of it, but obviously most writers make the same choice.– FumbleFingersCommented Dec 13, 2016 at 19:47
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2 Answers
In that particular case (talking about a living creature) "above" would sound "warmer", though both are grammatically correct.
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This answer fits my sense. "Above all" is the more common -- books.google.com/ngrams/… -- and the more commonly used phrase in literary language (see Shakespeare) and religious language (e.g. the Bible) -- "over all" might be slightly more associated with a straight valuation vs. a romantic / philosophical / moral / spiritual statement in "above all." But both can be used for both.... Commented Dec 13, 2016 at 18:08
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Yes, "straight valuation" is the connotation I have for "over" as well. I tried to figure out how to express that, but couldn't come up with anything. I should have gone the other way: "above" is emotional, "over" is unemotional.– MMacDCommented Dec 13, 2016 at 18:15
In your examples
He values her above all others.
is the better choice. One way to tell, is to look at the opposite
He values her above all others.
He values her below all others.He values her over all others.
He values her under all others.
The last sentence is not quite right.
