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About comparison.

 
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monkichi



Joined: 04 Aug 2006
Posts: 3

PostPosted: Tue Aug 08, 2006 6:51 am    Post subject: About comparison. Reply with quote

Hi, could you answer my question?

I came across a sentence like the one below:

The hot air coming from the desert may dry up water faster than the rain falls.

This sencence sounds funny to me, because "the rain falls" doesn't dry up water.

If i'm correct, the last part of the sentence can be rewritten as follows :
("fast" must not come up, though.)

The hot air coming from the desert may dry up water faster than the rain falls may dry up water (fast).


or

Take "the rain" as a noun phrase and "falls" as verb.

The hot air coming from the desert may dry up water faster than the rain falls (fast).


Is the sentence in question correct?
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redset



Joined: 18 Mar 2006
Posts: 582
Location: England

PostPosted: Tue Aug 08, 2006 10:24 am    Post subject: Re: About comparison. Reply with quote

monkichi wrote:


Take "the rain" as a noun phrase and "falls" as verb.

The hot air coming from the desert may dry up water faster than the rain falls (fast).


You have the right idea with this one - it's saying that the hot air may dry up water (make it disappear) faster than the rain can fall (and replace it). You're right about the noun phrase and the verb too - in this case rain is a noun and falls is a verb. Rainfall (one word) is a noun, and if they'd said 'faster than the rainfalls' then it would sound like the rainfalls were also drying up the water, which would be pretty strange!
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