THAN or THAT (driving me crazy)

Question

Could you please take a look at this?there is something i don't get, let me explainyou can say "I make more than you in 2 day than you do in 5 days" meaning you can say "In 2 days i make more than you do in 5 day""In 2 days I sleep more than half the amount THAT i sleep in 5 day during the week"structure wise this must be correct and as you can see its a THAT and not a THANnow if you turn it around "I sleep more than half the amount in 2 days ___ I do in 5 days"now why wouldn't the missing word be THAT but THAN like you said, i'd go with THAT rather than THAN since in the above its THATlast thing1 I get about half as much sleep over the weekend as I do the other five days of the week put together (this could be said)but could this be saidI get a little more than half as much sleep over the weekend as I do the other five days of the week put together. orI get a little more than 2 times as much sleep over the weekend as i do the other five days of the week put together.thanks

Dimsumexpress · Accepted Answer

Don't mean to be blunt but I have no idea how you came up with these weird sentences.

I am so sure that no one would phrase the sentences or carry a conversaton in that strange tone.

Is there a reason that you must insist on repeating these questions? I am very curious.

With the making money quesition, it should read:

I can make more money than you in 2 days than you do in 5 - future

I made more money than you....................................in 5 - past

It is [it's], remember that!

alc24"In 2 days I sleep more than half the amount THAT i sleep in 5 day during the week"

structure wise this must be correct and as you can see its a THAT and not a THAN
now if you turn it around "I sleep more than half the amount in 2 days ___ I do in 5 days"

No, the ones getting driven crazy are those trying to help you! there is nothing correct about the structure of this sentence. I truly tried to make some sense of it to help you but just couldn't...

This sounds more like a word problem in math than a coherent English sentence to me.

Avangi · Answer

alc24You can say "I make more ~~than you~~ in 2 days than you do in 5 [days]", meaning you can say "In 2 days I make more than you do in 5 days." Only "one day" is singular. "Two days" and "five days" are plural expressions.
(except: They had a two day start on us.)

"In 2 days I sleep more than half the amount THAT I sleep in 5 day during the week" While "More than half the amount" is technically correct, it's natural (and idiomatic) to say "more than twice the amount," and "less than half the amount."
When comparing the size or amount of one thing to that of another, A is less than B, equal to B, or greater (more) than B. "Equal" is "one to one." "Smaller" is "fractional" (less than one). "Larger" is "greater than one."
True, you may sometimes combine smaller and larger:
"My muscle is only a little more than half as large as his."
But not, "My muscle is more than half as large as his."

Structure wise this must be correct, and as you can see it's a THAT and not a THAN.
Now if you turn it around "I sleep ~~more than~~ only/less than half the amount in 2 days ___ I do in 5 days"

Now why wouldn't the missing word be THAT ~~but~~ and not THAN like you said? I'd go with THAT rather than THAN, since in the above it's THAT. So would I! (Like WHO said?)

The key is the use of the word, "amount." "the amount THAT I spend/sleep"

[I'm tired! ]
last thing
1 I get about half as much sleep over the weekend as I do the other five days of the week put together (this could be said) Yes.

but could this be said

I get a little more than half as much sleep over the weekend as I do the other five days of the week put together. Yes.
orI get a little more than 2 times as much sleep over the weekend as i do the other five days of the week put together. [Yes.] But "put together" is an idiom used to emphasize the greatness of the amount, and it's misleading to use it here. "Combined" would probably be better. ("Put together" is not incorrect.) Please be more careful with the details of your format, and with your punctuation/capitalization.

- A. (your friendly neighborhood unmod)

CalifJim · Answer

alc24"I sleep more than half the amount in 2 days ___ I do in 5 days"

now why wouldn't the missing word be THAT

It is that.

... more than half the amount ... that I ...

alc24but THAN like you said

like I said??? What are you going on about?

CJ

Dimsumexpress · Answer

Avangi
"My muscle is only a little more than half as large as his."

But not, "My muscle is more than half as large as his."

Avangi, be careful when you flex that muscle.

On a more serious note, I hope you are not condoning the use of this kind of "riddle like" sentence because not only it makes one's head hurt,

but it also sounds atrocious; although I agree with you that sometimes we may occasionally use it to describe dimension, size, weight, height, and etc. but not in that kind of construction which in effect contains two contradicting and reciprocting comparisions

Sorry buddy, I don't mean to disagree but that's how I see it.

Avangi · Answer

Will Rogers used to say that if you and I agree on everything, then one of us is unnecessary.

Sometimes we struggle here over the lack of context. With sufficient prior context, a concise sentence usually makes the point; but without it, we might call the same sentence wrong.
So we compromise and add some nonsense to make "sense" out of it.

CalifJim · Answer

AvangiWill Rogers used to say that if you and I agree on everything, then one of us is unnecessary.

So much for the theory of strength in numbers!

But Will Rogers aside, I believe the poster is working on the cusp of language and mathematics just now. This thread is actually somewhat instructive, because we note here how difficult it is to express any but the most elementary mathematical relationships in words. The "word problems" of grade-school arithmetic come to mind, and who hasn't had to struggle with those!

On a more philosophical plane, one begins to realize why, historically, the whole new symbol system of mathematics developed in parallel with ordinary language out of the need to express these relationships more accurately and easily. There are some realms of human thought where ordinary language cannot follow.

CJ

Avangi · Answer

[Y] <img class='emoticon' style='Width:19px;Height:19px;' data-delaysrc='https://uat-englishforward-forums-backend.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/Emoticons/1.gif' src='https://uat-englishforward-forums-backend.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/Emoticons/1.gif' alt='Emotion: smile'/>

Dimsumexpress · Answer

With all subjects in school when I was a kid, Math was something I barely managed, and when I said it sounded like a "word problem", I meant every word because it reminded me the difficult time I had with it. My whole discussion was, when people of foreign origin want to learn English, I presume they want to learn to communicate correctly and gramamtically with all probability. And the particular structure sturck me odd, more than once.

Is that really what Will Roger said? I guess I am not old enough to recall

THAN or THAT (driving me crazy)

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