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Guest Posted 21 years ago
Grammar

"Other" or not

I have always thought that sentences as "No life like it" and "No place like it" suggested that the life and place did not exist.
Shouldn't it be "No other place like" and "No other life like it" ?
  

Top answer

I see your point, Guest. ' We can't compare something with itself; therefore the 'life' in 'no life' is already implicitly 'other'. MrP

— MrPedantic

  • I see your point, Guest.
  • ' We can't compare something with itself; therefore the 'life' in 'no life' is already implicitly 'other'.
  • MrP
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3 Answers
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I see your point, Guest.

But if we expand 'like' into 'to be compared with', and 'it' into 'this life', we can see that the 'otherness' is already implicit:

'[There is] no life to be compared with this life.'

We can't compare something with itself; therefore the 'life' in 'no life' is already implicitly 'other'.

MrP
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Isn't the English language great.

Thank you
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Welcome to English Forums, Leslie070950!

Hope you found the minibar.

MrP
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