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Believer Posted 18 years ago
Grammar

'than' in a comparative sentence

0Hi,02br
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00I think it is an accepted knowledge that the word 'than' should be thought of as a conjunction in a comparatve sentence if you want to write in a formal setting, but what I have difficulty with is knowing when what follows the subject form of a word that comes after the 'as' is optional and when not. Please help.02br
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01i00John is taller than I (am) -- the word in parentheses seems to be optional.02i02br
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01i00John plays better than I (can play) -- the words in parentheses seem to be optional.02i02br
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01i00John dances better than I (can dance) -- Again, what is in parentheses seem to be optional and to me the sentence 'John dances better than I do' sounds good too.02i02br
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00... so far so good, if my previous effort was somewhat fruitful, but what about this?02br
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00John plays chess better than I do -- Here, 'can play' seems awkward to be used, so I used the word 'do'. Is using 'do' correct? Also, not placing 'do' at the end seems to be incorrect. Is placing 'do' at the end a must? 02br
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00Can you think of any situation in which the placing of some word after a subject form after the word (conjunction??) is not optional?02br
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00Sorry, if my post was long.0-
  

Top answer

0It's very common in sentences of this sort to drop everything after the pronoun. So "John is taller than I" is the acceptable wording. " To those folks using the "correct" pronoun seems pretentious.

— Spides

  • 0It's very common in sentences of this sort to drop everything after the pronoun.
  • So "John is taller than I" is the acceptable wording.
  • " To those folks using the "correct" pronoun seems pretentious.
  • " Mind you, it's not incorrect to add "do" or to repeat the verb "can dance," or"can play," but most native speakers would not do that, and it would sound odd to many.
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2 Answers
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0It's very common in sentences of this sort to drop everything after the pronoun. So "John is taller than I" is the acceptable wording. In fact, in conversation many, probably most, people would say, "John is taller than me." To those folks using the "correct" pronoun seems pretentious. So your final example would read "John plays chess better than I." Mind you, it's not incorrect to add "do
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0You can use the full form, the 'pro' form, or just the pronoun. In the last case, note that isolated subject pronouns after 01i00than02i00 are often expressed as object pronouns in informal situations. The 'pro' form is the echo of the operator (modal or auxiliary) -- 01b00do02b00 if the first clause has no other operator.02br
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