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Question :- Usha Kiran is not the tallest of all the buildings in the city.

Options:-

  1. Some other buildings in the city are at least taller than Usha Kiran.
  2. Some other buildings in the city are perhaps taller than Usha Kiran.

As per my knowledge, the positive degree for the sentence "Wheat is not the most nutritious of all the grains" is "Some grains are at least as nutritious as wheat". The positive degree for any such sentence would have 'at least' followed by an adjective. Is it true for comparative degree too? Which sentence makes more sense among the aforesaid options grammatically as well as is more meaningful?

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    #1 is invalid, ad #2 is "odd" in this context. The natural phrasing is Some other buildings in the city are at least as tall as Usha Kiran if that's the exact meaning you want. But I'd have thought anyone wanting to say that would know if Some other buildings in the city are taller than Usha Kiran, in which case it would make much more sense to explicitly say that.
    – FumbleFingers
    Commented Jul 17 at 11:44
  • Yeah, I also feel the same. But do you think among the two options, second one is better than first one?
    – Kakiaririki
    Commented Jul 17 at 11:47
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    Like I said, of your two options, #1 is invalid, so obviously #2 is the best of a bad bunch. But even though it's syntactically valid, it's a very peculiar thing to say (both in the choice of phrasing and the meaning), so I suggest you don't waste any more time thinking about it.
    – FumbleFingers
    Commented Jul 17 at 11:52
  • +1 @Kakiaririki The word "perhaps" in Sentence 2 makes it unacceptable as in the question it is mentioned "not the tallest" which means certainly there is a building or there are buildings taller than Usha Kiran. In sentence 1, the phrase "at least taller than" is wrong usage. Upvoted
    – James Mathai
    Commented Jul 17 at 17:51
  • Usha Kiran is not the "tallest" which refers to two conditions- either Usha Kiran is 'one of the tallest' or Some buildings are taller than Usha Kiran...in that way can perhaps make any sense? Some buildings may 'not' be taller as they are as tall as Usha Kiran.
    – Kakiaririki
    Commented Jul 17 at 18:07

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Degrees of Adjectives conversion for "not one of the largest"..

Considering the other example given by OP:

Superlative: Wheat is not the most nutritious of all the grains.
Positive: Some grains are at least as nutritious as wheat.

The Comparative form as per rule would be :
Wheat is not more nutritious than some other grains.

Correct answer.
Now applying this to OP's question:

Question :- Usha Kiran is not the tallest of all the buildings in the city.

The correct answer should be:
Usha Kiran is not taller than some other buildings in the city.
OR.
Some other buildings in the city are taller than Usha Kiran

Discussion on options given in the question.

1.Some other buildings in the city are at least taller than Usha Kiran.
2.Some other buildings in the city are perhaps taller than Usha Kiran..

Option 2 is incorrect because the word "perhaps" is used. In the question it is mentioned Usha Kiran is not the tallest building, hence there are undoubtedly other taller building/ buildings in the city. The second option would work if we remove "perhaps".

Option 1 combines positive and comparative transformations of the given sentence, but it is invalid. When comparing two structures, one can be "at least as tall as" but not "at least taller than." This is an invalid sentence structure. The questioner had intended to invent a new phrase and may accept this as the correct response. But it doesn't work.
To summarise: Neither of the options is correct.

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