Is "much" correctly used here?

Question

In the sentence, "I'm too much smarter than you,"  is there a grammatical error?

Julielai · Accepted Answer

I'd say "I am a lot smarter than you".

CalifJim · Answer

No. There is no grammatical error. But in practical terms it is an error of communication if what you intend to say is "I'm much smarter than you", or "I'm too smart for you", or something else.

"I'm too much smarter than you" is a rather complicated structure, and it would be rare to find oneself in a situation where such a stucture would be needed. It is, in a way, an incomplete structure. It seems to be only the first part of a "too X to Y" structure, as in "I'm too short to reach the top shelf".

So the completed form of your example sentence might be
"I'm too much smarter than you to believe that the salesman will deliver on those extravagant promises".

The use of only the first part, then, is appropriate as a response in an on-going conversation thus:

-- I believe the salesman will deliver on his promises. But it seems you don't believe that he will.
-- No, I don't. I'm too much smarter than you.

That said, I suspect your real question was whether "I'm too much smarter than you" means the same thing as "I'm much smarter than you". I think you see now that these two do not mean the same thing.

CJ

Is "much" correctly used here?

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