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 Mister Micawber
Language Coach
Joined: 17 Jul 2005
Posts: 13015
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 #3 (permalink) Tue May 13, 2008 7:05 am "that" |
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| Is it "much severer" or "more severe"? |
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Molly
I'm a Communicator ;-)
Joined: 12 Feb 2008
Posts: 4017
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| #4 (permalink) Tue May 13, 2008 10:12 am "that" |
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| Mister Micawber wrote: |
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Yes.
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I actually thinking that I don't need to use that because my first sentence was; The winter in New York is much severe than Tokyo. But when I review it I'm just thinking that how about if I put that, and I am right. I'm happy learning from you, sir. |
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Alv
I'm new here and I like it ;-)
Joined: 10 May 2008
Posts: 20
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| #5 (permalink) Tue May 13, 2008 10:18 am "that" |
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| Molly wrote: |
| Is it "much severer" or "more severe"? |
Hi Molly,
Thanks for your note. I actually don't know the rule on when to use much and more. As far as I understand, I need to use much when it is uncountable nouns like much money, much traffic, much water etc. And I use more on, more beautiful and etc. |
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Alv
I'm new here and I like it ;-)
Joined: 10 May 2008
Posts: 20
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| #6 (permalink) Tue May 13, 2008 10:22 am "that" |
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| I also don't know. Let's see if Mr M answers. |
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Molly
I'm a Communicator ;-)
Joined: 12 Feb 2008
Posts: 4017
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| #7 (permalink) Tue May 13, 2008 16:40 pm "that" (The winter of New York is much severer than that of Tokyo.) |
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You can say either 'severer' or you can say 'more severe'. Both are acceptable as the comparative form of the adjective 'severe'.
You can add the word 'much' to a comparative form in order to indicate a large difference. So you can also say 'much severer' or you can say 'much more severe'.
The word 'severe' (alone) is not a comparative form and therefore 'much severe' does not work in your sentence.
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Yankee
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Joined: 16 Apr 2006
Posts: 8316
Location: USA
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| #8 (permalink) Tue May 13, 2008 19:53 pm "that" (The winter of New York is much severer than that of Tokyo.) |
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| Quote: |
| You can say either 'severer' or you can say 'more severe'. Both are acceptable as the comparative form of the adjective 'severe'. |
The American Corpus shows.
more severe 889 per million words
severer 7 per million words
Which would you advise a student to use? |
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Molly
I'm a Communicator ;-)
Joined: 12 Feb 2008
Posts: 4017
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| #9 (permalink) Tue May 13, 2008 23:19 pm "that" (The winter of New York is much severer than that of Tokyo.) |
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I suppose both are fine.
However, due to the difficulty of pronouncing "severer" (hehe), many Americans might prefer "more severe".
hehe
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Prezbucky
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Joined: 07 Nov 2006
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Location: Nashville, TN (USA)
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| #10 (permalink) Tue May 13, 2008 23:19 pm "that" (The winter of New York is much severer than that of Tokyo.) |
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President Bush would bring the laughs if he tried to say "severer".
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Billie Jean is not my lover. Hee. |
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Prezbucky
I'm a Communicator ;-)
Joined: 07 Nov 2006
Posts: 2621
Location: Nashville, TN (USA)
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