Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums

[fw]

A grammar book at hand shows sentence #1 below.
1. Keats is as great a poet as ever lived.

Many English-Japanese dictionaries at hand even describe �as �as ever lived� as a set phrase.

Which sentence, #2 or #3, is grammatically correct with Anthony Hopkins then?
2. Anthony Hopkins is as great an actor as ever lived.
3. Anthony Hopkins is as great an actor as has ever lived.

Anthony Hopkins is a living actor, so I think only #3 is correct and that #2 is not. Am I correct?

[bud]

"As ever lived" is describing all actors, dead or alive - not just Anthony Hopkins. Therefore, adding "has" applies to all actors, too.

I think both #2 and #3 are correct, but #2 sounds "cleaner."