Can we use a comparative (e.g. bigger or more difficult) with "compared to" or "in comparison to"? is There are contradictory disputes, answers, and examples on the Internet regarding this question which have made me confused. I would appreciate it if someone could rectify this contradictory content.
Admittedly, conveying the same meaning using "than" is less wordy, but I want to know about the grammatical validity of this structure and not about the better ways that we can convey the meaning.
For example, in this question these sentences are proposed by OP:
1 Microsoft has bigger market share compared to Apple.
2 This question is more difficult as compared to the previous one.
The answerer says: "It is ungrammatical to use a comparative (e.g. bigger or more difficult) with compared to. Either use a non-comparative adjective (e.g. big or difficult) with as compared to or simply compared to". The answerer also have suggested these alternatives:
3 Microsoft has a large market share [as] compared to Apple.
4 This question is difficult [as] compared to the previous one.
However, I found this example in Cambridge dictionary:
5 Children seem to learn more interesting things compared to/with when we were at school.
Which contradicts with the answer above.
I also I could find more contradictory examples form Cambridge English Corpus on this page:
6 Therefore, the difference in the dehydration and rehydration paths was much higher in control seeds compared to primed seeds.
7 We expect returns from agriculture to be greater and fisheries returns to be less under the alternate management plans as compared with the base model.
Additional content that I could find on the Internet regarding this question:
In this question the answerer has suggested following sentences as valid structures:
8 My house is much smaller in comparison to yours.
9 Compared to your house, mine looks much smaller.
10 My house is smaller compared to/with yours.
In this question it is asked if the following sentence is correct:
11 In comparison with Joe, Peter is much wealthier.
Someone has answered:
"Yes, it is fine to use a comparative adjective here ... Another way is .... 'In comparison with Peter, Joe is poor', ..."
and also someone has commented:
"Don't you think "in comparison" and a comparative adjective seem redundant together? "than sb./sth." seems more suited to go with a comparative adjective."
I could also find following sentences in COCA dataset.
12 Many women are much more verbal in comparison to guys concerning telling others about their feelings and also emotions.
13 this app store managed to reach this number of apps the most rapidly compared to other app stores in the world.
There is also some other contradictory content here.
