Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums

[u911859]

I have some questions about forming English comparative sentences,

Question 1
The sentence "Compared to that book, this book is even more interesting"
implies that both books are intersting. Does "Compared to that book, this book is even a little more interesting"
or "Compared to that book, this books is even more interesting, but by a little" imply that both books are
interesting and that the difference between them is just a little?
If no, what is the correct way to express that both books are interesting and the difference between them is just a little?

Question 2
The sentence "Compared to the other books, this books is moderately interesting" implies that "the other books"
and "this book" are not very interesting. Is there an English sentence which expresses that the difference between
" the other books" and "this book" is just a little in addition to the implication that
"the other books" and "this books" are not very interesting?

[dragn]

Hi,

Welcome to the Help Center!

You may get several ideas from others on this one, but here's one idea you might consider.

In the first situation, where both books are reasonably interesting but one is a little more interesting than the other, you could probably just say:

This book is a little / slightly more interesting than that one.

Now, I can't speak for all native speakers, but this suggests to me that both books are reasonably interesting. You see, if that were not true, I'd probably say something different. If both books were boring, as in the second situation, I might say something like this:

This book is a little / slightly less boring than that one.

Now, it is clear that neither book is interesting.

Hope this makes sense.

Greg

[u911859]

Hi Greg,

Is there any difference in meaning between "Compared to that book, this books is even more interesting, but only slightly" and "This book is a little / slightly more interesting than that one"?

Is the sentence "Compared to that book, this book is even more interesting by a little" a grammatical sentence?

[dragn]