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The stupid person thinks that he's as smart or smarter than the smart person, and therein lies his stupidity.I'm doing a translation, and I need to know this.  Thanks!

BarbaraPA · Accepted Answer

It's okay - are you speaking in generalities? "The stupd person" as in "The wise man"? Or do you mean a specific person - This stupid person...?

Yoong Liat · Answer

AnonymousThe stupid person thinks that he's as smart or smarter than the smart person, and therein lies his stupidity.

The stupid person thinks that he's as smart as or smarter than the smart person, and therein lies his stupidity. ('as' is necessary)

Marius Hancu · Answer

Yoong Liat
AnonymousThe stupid person thinks that he's as smart or smarter than the smart person, and therein lies his stupidity.
The stupid person thinks that he's as smart as or smarter than the smart person, and therein lies his stupidity. ('as' is necessary)

No, as isn't necessary. It's dispensed with by many good writers. See from the New York Times:

http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/sports/baseball/majorleague/newyorkmets/index.html?offset=90&query=WORLD%20SERIES&field=des&match=exact

... holds Torre is as smart or smarter than any Yankee manager; Torre attributes team's success to combination of luck and his communication with owner ...

Yoong Liat · Answer

Two common forms of comparison are A is as good as B and A is better than B. When these forms are combined, the correct combination is A is as good as, or better than, B; OR A is as good as, if not better than, B The second as cannot be omitted: if it were, the sentence would read, in effect, A is as good ... than B.

(The Right Word at the Right Time, edited and designed by The Reader's Digest Limited, London)

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