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Anonymous Posted 19 years ago
Grammar

Two comparatives- elliptical constructions

0 Hi there,02br
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00What are the cases when it is okay to omit the verb from a sentence? What about cases when 2 comparatives are used, such as "The higher you go, the farther you see?" I was just wondering if there is a rule for something like this written somewhere.02br
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00Thanks,02br
00Ash.0-
  

Top answer

0Ash, I have to tell you, I'm laughing at myself. 02br 02br 00If you leave out the "can" it becomes more like a proverb. The bigger they are, the harder they fall.

— BarbaraPA

  • 0Ash, I have to tell you, I'm laughing at myself.
  • 02br 02br 00If you leave out the "can" it becomes more like a proverb.
  • The bigger they are, the harder they fall.
  • 02br 02br 00If you are describing a real situation - go on up to the third floor for the best view of the city - really, the higher you go, the more you can see - in that case, I think it's better with the "can"0-
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5 Answers
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0Ash, I have to tell you, I'm laughing at myself. When you first asked about elliptical constructions in the chat room, I was thinking about planetary orbits, which are elliptical.02br
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00If you leave out the "can" it becomes more like a proverb. The bigger they are, the harder they fall. The higher you go, the more you see.02br
02br
00If you are descr
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0 01blockquote
00omit the verb from a sentence?12blockquote
10Your question is confusing. You suggest that perhaps comparatives allow the omission of verbs. Then you give an example with two verbs! 02br
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00 The higher you 01b00go02b00, the farther you 01b00see02b00.02br
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0 He wants to know about omitting "can" - The higher you go, the further you CAN see. I'm not pyschic - we were in the chat room. 0-
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Hi GrammarGeek and CJ,

Thanks for answering my questions, I had written this post when it was awfully late but I was sure I couldn't sleep soundly unless I got this figured- so I guess thats' why it mayn't have made a lot of sense

I agree, there may be verbs in the sentence, but the verb in question is the one that is sometimes omitted in the second part of the sentence: "The h
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In my opinion can is a modal verb here that expresses ability. It can be omitted, because the ability to see more the higher you go is kind of granted, isn´t it?

Is this one really a case of verb omission? I do not really think so.....
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