whose suggestion is it? (George offered a better suggestion to me than...)

[vaok]

George offered a better suggestion to me than_______.

A. Henry did to Smith B. that of Smith's C. Michaels's D. that Charles offered to me

I don't know which is proper. can anyone tell me which and why?

[Yankee]

Hi Vaok

Choice A is correct. The word 'than' is used to compare George's suggestion to me and Henry's suggestion to Smith.:
George offered a better suggestion to me than Henry did to Smith.

Choice C would be possible if you changed the wording:

George offered me a better suggestion than Michael's (suggestion).
That sentence compares two suggestions, both of which were probably offered to me.
.
_________________
Amy
.
ESL teacher, translator, and a native speaker of American English

[vaok]

thank you,Amy.

what about D?

Doesn't D mean "the suggestion charles offered to me"?

[Yankee]

Hi Vaok

The word 'that' doesn't work without adding 'which' in D. In addition, the 'offered to me' is a repetition of words already used in the beginning of the sentence, so it sounds overly wordy. Theoretically, you could write this:

George offered a better suggestion to me than that which Charles offered to me.

I'd say that sentence is grammatically correct, but it sounds horribly awkward.

Instead of 'that which', you could also say 'the one'. That improves the sentence a little, but it still sounds far too wordy.

The best solution might be this:
George offered a better suggestion to me than Charles did.
.
_________________
Amy
.
ESL teacher, translator, and a native speaker of American English