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Which is the correct structure when I use......as....as in a sentence?

  1. No poet is as renowned as William Wordsworth is.

  2. No other poet is as renowned as William Wordsworth is.

My grammar books says and many websites also say that 2 is grammatically correct though I have seen both are used in daily conversations by both native and non native speakers. Can anyone please explain If 1 is grammatical and if I can use both?

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    Both are OK. In full, 1 means "No poet is as renowned as William Wordsworth is renowned".
    – BillJ
    Sep 3, 2018 at 7:30

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Strictly speaking, only 2 is correct. Since "William Wordsworth" is a poet himself, you can't say "he is not as renowned as he is", that's just plain wrong.

However, in daily conversation, I also hear a lot of 1 spoken. Daily speech tends to be less strict in grammar. So if you say 1 it's easily understood by people as when you do such a negative comparison, the object being compared to is implicitly excluded.

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  • That's not how 1 is interpreted. It means "No poet is as renowned as William Wordsworth is (renowned)" is fine.
    – BillJ
    Sep 3, 2018 at 7:31
  • Hi Bill, If don't add "other", does it mean "William Wordsworth is not a poet"?
    – user254288
    Sep 3, 2018 at 7:55
  • @user254288 No! The word "other" is optional here.
    – BillJ
    Sep 3, 2018 at 8:34
  • +1 If you want to be precise in terms of logic, then you're quite right that other should be used. As a practical concern, it's not normally needed. But in some contexts it's essential. (I'm thinking of riddles and other English-derived puzzles where strict literalism is required.)
    – Jason Bassford
    Sep 3, 2018 at 15:44

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