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Taka Posted 12 years ago
Grammar

Difference

Would you come up with any examples that shows the comparative/superlative of "difference" (i.e more different than .../the most different in/of...) works fine?

Or like "unique", can't it be the comparative/superlative?
  

Top answer

Google often brings us bad examples, so I asked the question here.

  • Google often brings us bad examples, so I asked the question here.
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6 Answers
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Google often brings us bad examples, so I asked the question here.
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TakaGoogle often brings us bad examples
That makes it a good learning experience. Post some you like here and we'll check them. You should also get in the habit of using COCA or other corpora.
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I checked COCA as well, and it seemed that most of "more different than"s were " not more different than", which I believe is an idiomatic phrase meaning "(almost) the same". And there were no examples of "the most different of/in."

An example. Well, what about these? Would they really sound OK at all?

What is the most different between the US and Japan is the idea of "individ
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Taka it seemed that most of "more different than"s were " not more different than", which I believe is an idiomatic phrase meaning "(almost) the same".
I don't think it's idiomatic; it's just the negation, so I'd accept those examples.
TakaAnd there were no examples of "the most different of/in."
Yes, the superlative sounds
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This one isn't really the superlative in meaning; this "most" is close to "very", right?

What is most different between the US and Japan is the idea of "individuals".
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The comparative, "more different," is rather difficult to use, and typically appears only in certain set patterns, usually with the phrase, "you won't find a ...":

You won't find a more different use of this common ingredient than in this recipe.

You won't find a girl more different from the ones you usually date than this girl.

The superlative, "most different," is even

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