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Allthewayanime Posted 14 years ago
Grammar

Comparatives

Is the following option acceptable?

(the original one) The more complex and dangerous the activity appears,the greater are the safety checks and levels of pre-training.

Now wouldn't it be 'the greater the safety checks and levels of pre-training are'? Why is the verb before the subject?
  

Top answer

allthewayanime Why is the verb before the subject? It's not at all uncommon to use inversion in the second clause of a comparative structure, especially when (as in this case) there are so many words between the comparative adjective and the verb to be when you write it in the usual (uninverted) order. the greater [the safety checks and levels of pre-training] are CJ

— CalifJim

  • allthewayanime Why is the verb before the subject?
  • It's not at all uncommon to use inversion in the second clause of a comparative structure, especially when (as in this case) there are so many words between the comparative adjective and the verb to be when you write it in the usual (uninverted) order.
  • the greater [the safety checks and levels of pre-training] are CJ
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5 Answers
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allthewayanimeWhy is the verb before the subject?
It's not at all uncommon to use inversion in the second clause of a comparative structure, especially when (as in this case) there are so many words between the comparative adjective and the verb to be when you write it in the usual (uninverted) order.

the greater [the safety checks and level
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I agree with CJ. I'll just add that the inverted word order was common in older days and in fact is preserved in other Germanic languages such as Swedish. In modern Swedish inversion occurs, for example, after adverbs of manner, place and time. This occasionally happens in modern English, too. There is a British pop song calle
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Cool BreezeI am used to hearing and seeing Swedish and I find making comparisons between English and Swedish most interesting.
The whole mess of Germanic languages are really all just mispronunciations of each other anyway, aren't they?
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But would my option be acceptable?
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