Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums

[andale]

Hello All!

What is the correct rule for finishing a sentence that has a comparative followed by "than"? My wife is studing for TOELF and she asked me to check grammar in one passage where she wrote:

1) English speech sounds softer than Russian one does.

Is this grammatically correct? I said I wasn't sure. What would be a better way to write that?

2) English speech sounds softer than Russian.
3) English speech sounds softer than does Russian.
4) English speech sounds softer than Russian does.
5) English speech sounds softer than Russian speech.

[CP]

I would say that 2 and 5 are both good, with 4, 3, and 1 following, in order of best to worst.

We want things to be parallel, but we can omit words when the meaning is still clear. All the 5 sentences omit something, as the fullest way to say it would be, "English speech sounds softer than Russian speech sounds."

4 is OK but doesn't need the "does"; 3 is not parallel; and 1 adds "one" for no reason.
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You live a new life for every new language you speak. -Czech proverb

[Mary W. Ng]

How about "English sounds softer than Russian"?
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Mary W. Ng
Helping students learn grammar
http:www.aimpublishing.com

[andale]

CP,
Thanks for your reply!

Mary,
"English sounds softer than Russian" is the same as "English language sounds softer than Russian". The word "English" can be used as both an adjective and a noun. In phrase "English language," "English" is an adjective. But also by itself, the noun "English" can mean "English language".