Sentence Correctness

Question

HiPlease tell me if this sentence is correct.He was as tired as he couldly scarcely stand.

Rover_KE · Accepted Answer

No.

He was so tired he could hardly stand.

(I prefer hardly, but scarcely is not wrong.)

CalifJim · Answer

vsuresh
Hi
Please tell me if this sentence is correct.
He was as tired as he ~~couldly~~ could scarcely stand.

No, that's not a possible English sentence.

You probably want a so ... that ... construction.

He was so tired that he could scarcely stand.

"He could scarcely stand" is the result of being tired.

With as ... as ... you need a different ending.

He was as tired as [I was / you were].

The amount of tiredness is equal.

In your original sentence it doesn't make sense to say that the tiredness that he was experiencing was equal to the tiredness of "he could scarcely stand". "He could scarcely stand" is simply a fact. Facts don't experience tiredness.

More examples:

Too much sleep can leave you as tired as too little sleep.
Both Eddie and Jake looked as tired as Roland felt.
Gilbert wasn't as tired as he thought he would be after practice.

CJ

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