Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums

[learner12]

Hello, teachers!!

If there were adequate nursery centers, up to three times as many women might be employed outside the home.
(a grammar book)

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I don't understand "as many women" in the above sentence.

(1) If there were adequate nursery centers, up to three times as many women might be employed outside the home (AS TODAY).

(2) If there were adequate nursery centers, up to three times as many women (AS TODAY) might be employed outside the home.

(3) If there were adequate nursery centers, up to three times as many women (AS MEN) might be employed outside the home.

I thought the possibilities (1), (2), (3), but I didn't get to the destination.

Does "as many women" mean in this sentence?

Thank you in advance.

[dragn]

I don't understand what difference you perceive between your first and second interpretations: they are the same...and are both basically right. In other words, the idea is that up to three times as many women would be employed outside the home as are currently employed outside the home.

Greg

[learner12]

Dear dragn:

Thank you so much for your great explanations.

Yes, you are right. What I wrote is wrong.

Take care and have a nice day!!

[redset]

I just want to clear up the as many women thing.

If we want to compare numbers, we often use as many:
There are three times as many red cars as blue cars - the number of red cars is three times larger than the number of blue cars.
'I ate twice as many cakes as you!' - for every cake you ate, I ate two!
There are as many men working here as women - the same number of men and women work here.

So you're comparing the numbers of one thing with another - you can omit the thing you're comparing with, if the reader/listener knows what you're comparing against:

Blue cars are very popular. In this parking lot however, there are three times as many red cars - the first sentence talks about blue cars, so you know that the second sentence is comparing the number of red cars with the number of blue cars.
If there were adequate nursery centers, up to three times as many women might be employed outside the home - this is talking about the possibility of having more nursery centres, compared to the number we have right now. It says that if we had enough, then up to three times as many women could be employed outside the home (compared to the current number of women).

Make sense?

[learner12]

Dear redset:

Sorry for not writing to you for a long time.

I understood the sentence clearly for great explanations.

Take care and have a nice day.