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Fattyshank Posted 14 years ago
Grammar

Problem with "to increase X times/by X times"

Greetings everyone!

Is it correct to say: You need to decrease the size of your video by two times? or just two times? I mean reducing by half.
What's the difference between increasing by X times and X times? 7 increased by 3 times = 21? 7 increased 3 times =28?
  

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5 Answers
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This sounds better to me "You need to decrease the size of your video to half its length."
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Is it that increased by X times is an incorrect usage? But I've seen that many times on the internet.
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fattyshankIs it that increased by X times is an incorrect usage? But I've seen that many times on the internet.
Not incorrect, but imprecise.

If X initially was 10 and it was later increased by 3 times, does that mean it's 30 or 40 now? See, in theory it could mean either "X was increased by a factor of 3 (it was multiplied by 3)" or "X was increased
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You can also say

[increased / decreased / reduced] by a factor of X.

increased by a factor of 10 takes 3 to 30.
decreased (or reduced) by a factor of 10 takes 30 to 3.

CJ
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Thank you.
to half its original size.
to an eighth of its original size.


When could we omit of and when we couldn't?
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