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O.ABOOTTY Posted 11 years ago
Grammar
... than any (other) language
‘English is spreading faster, and in a richer variety of ways, than any language in history’.
Is this sentence grammatically correct. According to what I have studied, there must be the word "other" between 'any' and 'language'. But an English scholar says that this sentence without "other" is correct, especially in American English.
I would like to get a clarification from the native speakers from the UK and the USA.
Is this sentence grammatically correct. According to what I have studied, there must be the word "other" between 'any' and 'language'. But an English scholar says that this sentence without "other" is correct, especially in American English.
I would like to get a clarification from the native speakers from the UK and the USA.
Top answer
Technically, if you leave out the other, you're saying that English is spreading faster than even itself, which is semantically impossible. But that doesn't make the sentence grammatically ill-formed. "
- Technically, if you leave out the other, you're saying that English is spreading faster than even itself, which is semantically impossible.
- But that doesn't make the sentence grammatically ill-formed.
- "
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3 Answers
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Technically, if you leave out the other, you're saying that English is spreading faster than even itself, which is semantically impossible. But that doesn't make the sentence grammatically ill-formed. No native speaker of American English would misunderstand the sentence or even notice the missing "other."
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"Other" seems superfluos to me. Mostly this would be a matter of rythm and style. Verbosity is not necessarily a bad thing, though.
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