Adjective placement

[Metamorfose]

Given the sentence:

(1) In a town you could have cheaper options than you could have in cities.


I don't know why, but I find this sentence a bit awkward for the adjective is not directed linked with than. Is there anything wrong with it? or should it be like (2)?

(2) In a town you could have options cheaper than you could have in cities.

I appreciate your help.

José

[Andrew Patterson]

Given the sentence:

(1) In a town you could have cheaper options than you could have in cities.


I don't know why, but I find this sentence a bit awkward for the adjective is not directed linked with than. Is there anything wrong with it? or should it be like (2)?

(2) In a town you could have options cheaper than you could have in cities.

I appreciate your help.

José

They are both correct, but (2) is a reduced relative clause. In full it would be:

In a town you could have options which are cheaper than you could have in cities.

I think the awkwardness, however, comes from the fact that you used "town" in the singular and "cities" in the plural. There is no need to repeat "could have", either.

Why not write:

(3) In a town you could have cheaper options than a city; or
(4) In towns you could have cheaper options than cities.

I'm not sure that I like the word "option" here.

How about:

(5) Towns tend to be cheaper than cities.

Teach your students plain English.
I do.

Andrew Patterson.

[Metamorfose]

Very good Andrew, in fact I try my hard not to get to sentences that one could only find in literature, that was a doubt I got after seeing one of my pupils working with comparatives and talking about life in different places.

Sometimes we want to prove to ourselves (we foreigners) that we know good English and end up with very nice sentences and/or structures...but sometimes useless for real purpose, gee, I guess I have a long run to learning, but off I am


Thanks very much.