1

I wrote these myself:

a. I'm feeling grumpier today than my husband was yesterday.

b. I'm feeling grumpier today than was my husband yesterday.

c. Today I'm feeling grumpier than yesterday my husband was.

d. Today I'm feeling grumpier than yesterday was my husband.

I think both a. and b. work, how about c. and d.?

2 Answers 2

1

Option A is technically correct. Option B is understandable but somewhat archaic in its syntax.

I agree with mixolydian that something about these sentences is a little unnatural. Option A is technically correct, but sounds a little stilted. Other options would be "I am grumpier today than my husband was yesterday" or "I feel grumpier today than my husband did yesterday."

C and D are not good options because they make it sound like you are feeling grumpier than you were the day before, and the section about your husband is tacked on or belongs to another sentence. Sometimes it's acceptable to place time before your subject, but in a sentence with two separate times and two different subjects of the clauses, it makes the sentence confusing to have the second time before the second subject. You could potentially do "Today I am grumpier than my husband was yesterday."

-1

None of them really sound right to me, except maybe A. I would prefer “I’m feeling grumpier today than my husband did yesterday.” This gets across the meaning “My husband felt grumpy yesterday but today I feel more grumpy than he did [i.e. felt grumpy] yesterday.”

EDIT: after reading @Katy's comment and thinking about it again, "was" definitely makes perfect sense, and so I would revise this to say that sentence A is good. I think "did" also sounds fine, but maybe as Katy also mentioned, it is more appropriate without the progressive tense ("I feel grumpier today than my husband did yesterday").

3
  • Why can't you use the progressive tense?
    – listeneva
    Feb 11, 2019 at 1:14
  • @listeneva, you definitely can use the progressive tense, and technically it is more correct than mixolydian's suggestion. "I am feeling grumpier today than my husband was [feeling] yesterday," is perfectly appropriate, just like "I am happier today than I was yesterday."
    – Katy
    Feb 11, 2019 at 2:27
  • @Katy yes... I don't know what I was thinking. You are certainly right. listeneva - my sentence sentence was meant to paraphrase the meaning of my first sentence. I did not mean to suggest that you can't use the progressive tense.
    – Mixolydian
    Feb 11, 2019 at 3:09

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