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Taka Posted 21 years ago
Grammar

No --er vs. no more --

1: A is no younger than B.

>A is much older than B. It's an emphasis of 'A is not younger than B'

2: A is no more young than B.

>Neither A nor B is young.


It is said that 'no+the comparative of an adjective' and 'no more ' are semantically different from each other, as above. But that seems to be only for short adjectives. I mean, what about long ones, such as 'beautiful'? How do you make such semantic distinction for 'beautiful'? You cannot say 'A is no beautifuler than B', can you?
  

Top answer

The basic problem is that I see your two sentences as carrying the same meaning ('A and B are the same age, and perhaps neither is particularly young'), Taka, with #1 natural and #2 unnatural. Could you cite from your reference, or give me some further examples?

— Mister Micawber

  • The basic problem is that I see your two sentences as carrying the same meaning ('A and B are the same age, and perhaps neither is particularly young'), Taka, with #1 natural and #2 unnatural.
  • Could you cite from your reference, or give me some further examples?
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22 Answers
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The basic problem is that I see your two sentences as carrying the same meaning ('A and B are the same age, and perhaps neither is particularly young'), Taka, with #1 natural and #2 unnatural.

Could you cite from your reference, or give me some further examples?
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Quote from Ask Dr Z
A : He is no more young than her.
B : He is no younger than her.
I cannot understand the difference in meaning.
Eisuke, Japan


Okay, there isn't a difference in meaning, but one is grammatically correct and the other isn't. We do not say 'more young', we say 'younger' .In the same way, we do not say more big (w
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It's from 'Current English Usage (Macmillan), 1981 p.171'.
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1: A is no younger than B.

>A is much older than B. It's an emphasis of 'A is not younger than B'

2: A is no more young than B.

>Neither A nor B is young.


It is said that 'no+the comparative of an adjective' and 'no more ' are semantically different from each other, as above. But that seems to be only for short adjectives. I mean, what about long
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JTT.

So, you mean 'no more [the base form] than' can be used either for an emphasis or a denial?
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This may be a BrE variant; but in the 'denial' context, I find a pull towards:

A is no more young than B is.

Women's bodies are no more beautiful than men's are, or cheetahs' or dolphins'.

MrP
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So, you mean 'no more [--er] than' can be used either for an emphasis or an denial?

Hi Taka,

No 'er'. Only the base form is used.

This structure is used as a strong denial, very likely, almost always as a response to some previous statement. The thing that the person is compared to is often times really outlandish because the person is trying to get across the mess
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Oops! Sorry!! It's a typo.

I meant to say:
you mean 'no more [the base form] than' can be used either for an emphasis or a denial?

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I agree with Mr P. I too, in some instances, find there to be a greater tendency towards a verb being included.
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I'm really sorry about the typo, JTT. But could you answer the question which I really wanted to ask?
So, you mean 'no more [the base form] than' can be used either for an emphasis or a denial?
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