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TeacherJapan Posted 10 years ago
Grammar

Could you help me figure this out?

1) The wearing of a pair of jeans is as "much of" a formality as was the wearing of a silk hat by his equivalent in a previous epoch.

2) What young people today is pleased to wear is as "much" a uniform today as the costumes of his forefathers were in earlier times.

Could you tell me why "much of" is used in 1) and only "much" instead of "much of" in 2)?
  

Top answer

teacherJapan Could you tell me why "much of" is used in 1) and only "much" instead of "much of" in 2)? It appears to me that these expressions are in free variation. I hear or read one or the other from time to time.

— CalifJim

  • teacherJapan Could you tell me why "much of" is used in 1) and only "much" instead of "much of" in 2)?
  • It appears to me that these expressions are in free variation.
  • I hear or read one or the other from time to time.
  • There is no difference in meaning.
  • The version without "of" has been the more common version for more than a hundred years according to Google Ngrams.
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5 Answers
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teacherJapanCould you tell me why "much of" is used in 1) and only "much" instead of "much of" in 2)?
It appears to me that these expressions are in free variation. I hear or read one or the other from time to time. There is no difference in meaning.

The version without "of" has been the more common version for more than a hundred years according to
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teacherJapanCould you tell me why "much of" is used in 1) and only "much" instead of "much of" in 2)?
I think 'of' is formally wrong, but it is common enough in standard text (even though your first example seems a more formal text while your second example has grammatical errors).
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Thank you very much for both of you!!! As for a grammatical error, you mean, "is" ?"are?"
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What young people today are pleased to wear is as "much" a uniform today as the costumes of their forefathers were in earlier times.
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Thank you very much for your corrections:)
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