Premodifiers with Degrees of Adjectives

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Both adverbs and adjectives in their comparative and superlative forms can be accompanied by premodifiers, single words and phrases, that intensify the degree.

[li]We were a lot more careful this time. [/li][li]He works a lot less carefully than the other jeweler in town. [/li][li]We like his work so much better. [/li][li]You'll get your watch back all the faster. [/li]

The same process can be used to downplay the degree:

[li]The weather this week has been somewhat better. [/li][li]He approaches his schoolwork a little less industriously than his brother does. [/li]

And sometimes a set phrase, usually an informal noun phrase, is used for this purpose:

[li]He arrived a whole lot sooner than we expected. [/li][li]That's a heck of a lot better. [/li]

If the intensifier very accompanies the superlative, a determiner is also required:

[li]She is wearing her very finest outfit for the interview. [/li][li]They're doing the very best they can. [/li]

Occasionally, the comparative or superlative form appears with a determiner and the thing being modified is understood:

[li]Of all the wines produced in Connecticut, I like this one the most. [/li][li]The quicker you finish this project, the better. [/li][li]Of the two brothers, he is by far the faster. [/li]

Authority for this section: A University Grammar of English by Randolph Quirk and Sidney Greenbaum. Longman Group: Essex, England. 1993. Used with permission.

Less versus Fewer

When making a comparison between quantities we often have to make a choice between the words fewer and less. Generally, when we're talking about countable things, we use the word fewer; when we're talking about measurable quantities that we cannot count, we use the word less. \"She had fewer chores, but she also had less energy.\" The managers at our local Stop & Shop seem to have mastered this: they've changed the signs at the so-called express lanes from \"Twelve Items or Less\" to \"Twelve Items or Fewer.\" Whether that's an actual improvement, we'll leave up to you. We do, however, definitely use less when referring to statistical or numerical expressions: [li]It's less than twenty miles to Dallas. [/li][li]He's less than six feet tall. [/li][li]Your essay should be a thousand words or less. [/li][li]We spent less than forty dollars on our trip. [/li][li]The town spent less than four percent of its budget on snow removal.[/li] In these situations, it's possible to regard the quantities as sums of countable measures.

Taller than I / me ??

When making a comparison with \"than\" do we end with a subject form or object form, \"taller than I/she\" or \"taller than me/her.\" The correct response is \"taller than I/she.\" We are looking for the subject form: \"He is taller than I am/she is tall.\" (Except we leave out the verb in the second clause, \"am\" or \"is.\") Some good writers, however, will argue that the word \"than\" should be allowed to function as a preposition. If we can say \"He is tall like me/her,\" then (if \"than\" could be prepositional like like) we should be able to say, \"He is taller than me/her.\" It's an interesting argument, but — for now, anyway — in formal, academic prose, use the subject form in such comparisons. We also want to be careful in a sentence such as \"I like him better than she/her.\" The \"she\" would mean that you like this person better than she likes him; the \"her\" would mean that you like this male person better than you like that female person. (To avoid ambiguity and the slippery use of than, we could write \"I like him better than she does\" or \"I like him better than I like her.\")

More than / over ??

In the United States, we usually use \"more than\" in countable numerical expressions meaning \"in excess of\" or \"over.\" In England, there is no such distinction. For instance, in the U.S., some editors would insist on \"more than 40,000 traffic deaths in one year,\" whereas in the UK, \"over 40,000 traffic deaths\" would be acceptable. Even in the U.S., however, you will commonly hear \"over\" in numerical expressions of age, time, or height: \"His sister is over forty; she's over six feet tall. We've been waiting well over two hours for her.\"