A practical english grammar - Vyssaja skola 1978
Clauses of comparison
Sound symbols
Adverb? are inflected for comparison in much the same way that adjectives are, except that only those short adverbs not ending in -ly use the endings -er and -est.
rast faster fastest
tight tighter tightest
Henry drives fast.
George drives faster.
David drives fastest of all.
There are some irregular comparisons:
well better best
badly worse worst
far farther farthest
The connecting word than, used with comparatives, is a conjunction, and the words following it are a clause, or the vestiges of one. (This has already been discussed, in Chapter 14, in connection with adjectives.) The best English style uses only as many words after than as are required to make the meaning clear.
The horse ate more than the cow ate.
One way to simplify the foregoing than-clause would be to use an echo verb, did, in place of ate.
The horse ate more than the cow did.
An even simpler version would be to omit the verb altogether.
The horse ate more than the cow.
The meaning prevents the only possible misinterpretation (making cow an object rather than a subject), since it is known that horses are not in the habit of eating cows. In speech, intonation would make the meaning clear; in writing, it would be better to include did.
The tiger ate more than the cow; it also ate a sheep.
In this case, cow is an object.
When pronouns follow than we encounter the problem of which is correct, the I-series or the me-series (subjective or objective). As has been pointed out earlier, informal English prefers the "objective” form whenever the pronoun is not intimately connected with a spoken verb as its subject, while "correct” formal style requires the subjective pronoun.
He runs faster than me. (informal)
He runs faster than I. (elegant)
All speakers say I if there is a following verb:
He runs faster than I do.
In the next example, the meaning is not clear.
Mary likes Paul better than me.
Does the speaker mean “better than I do” or “better than she likes me”? It would be better to expand the t/ian-clause to make this clear.
The use of than implies a clause that parallels the main clause in structure. The verbs used, if any, are usually echo verbs.
I can jump farther than you. (= than you can jump)
I can jump farther than you can. (= than you can jump)
I like coffee more than tea. (= than I like tea)
We walked farther today than yesterday. (= than we walked yesterday)
The expressions than necessary and than usual are idiomatic replacements for rather complex clauses in sentences like these:
He paid more than necessary. (= more than it was necessary to pay)
He ate more than usual. (= than he usually ate, or usually eats)
Sometimes than merely connects equivalent structures.
I would rather go than stay.
I say this more in sorrow than in anger.
Similar replacements occur in the comparison of equality.
He ate as much as John. (= as John ate)
Jim ran as fast as he could. (= as he could run)
Proportionate change. The use of the with comparatives at the beginning of clauses indicates that two (or more) actions or situations are changing in proportion to each other.
The longer we waited, the more impatient we became.
The better I got to know him, the less I liked him.
Frequently in this construction subjects and verbs are omitted altogether.
The sooner the better.
The more the merrier. (That is, the more people there are, the merrier we will be.)
If the reference is to future time, the verb in the first clause is always present tense or present perfect.
The sooner we start, the sooner we will finish.