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#2 (permalink) Fri Jul 11, 2008 9:11 am "four times saltier than"? |
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| Are you saying that "saltier" is not idiomatic? |
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Molly I'm a Communicator ;-)
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Nessie I'm a Communicator ;-)
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#4 (permalink) Fri Jul 11, 2008 10:23 am "four times saltier than"? |
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| nessie wrote: | | no, just because I was taught that usage is incorrect. |
By whom? |
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Molly I'm a Communicator ;-)
Joined: 12 Feb 2008 Posts: 4017
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#5 (permalink) Fri Jul 11, 2008 12:31 pm "four times saltier than"? |
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Hi Nessie
I don't see anything wrong or unusual with any of the following:
- is four times bigger than - is four times longer than - is four times wider than - is four times better than - is four times heavier than - is four times wealthier than - is four times riskier than - is four times saltier than
Something like the following would be considered incorrect grammar and would also sound odd to me:
- *is four times dangerouser than . |
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Yankee I'm a Communicator ;-)

Joined: 16 Apr 2006 Posts: 8265 Location: USA
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#6 (permalink) Fri Jul 11, 2008 12:53 pm "four times saltier than"? |
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salty - (comparative saltier, superlative saltiest) adjective
Microsoft® Encarta® 2006. © 1993-2005 Microsoft Corporation. _________________ I am an incurable optimist. |
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Inga I'm here quite often ;-)

Joined: 21 Apr 2008 Posts: 255 Location: Minsk, Belarus
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#7 (permalink) Fri Jul 11, 2008 12:54 pm "four times saltier than"? |
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 _________________ I am an incurable optimist. |
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Inga I'm here quite often ;-)

Joined: 21 Apr 2008 Posts: 255 Location: Minsk, Belarus
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Yankee I'm a Communicator ;-)

Joined: 16 Apr 2006 Posts: 8265 Location: USA
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Nessie I'm a Communicator ;-)
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#10 (permalink) Wed Jul 16, 2008 14:32 pm "four times saltier than"? |
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| nessie wrote: | Actually, I am taught (by my teachers here, of course) that "twice bigger than..." or "four times bigger than..." is incorrect. Instead we must say "twice as big as..." or "four times as big as..." It's not until now that I realized the formers are correct (+_+) |
We generally do not use "twice bigger than", but you could possibly say "two times bigger than".
You can say "twice as big as".
As far as I know, it's the same in British English. . |
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Yankee I'm a Communicator ;-)

Joined: 16 Apr 2006 Posts: 8265 Location: USA
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#11 (permalink) Fri Jul 18, 2008 8:08 am Expression "four times saltier than"? |
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| My teacher taught me that "four times saltier than" was only used in spoken English. In formal written English, we have to use "four times as salty as" instead. I do not know if it is entirely correct but that's how we are taught in Vietnam. |
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Atomos I'm new here and I like it ;-)

Joined: 18 Jul 2008 Posts: 25 Location: Vietnam
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#12 (permalink) Fri Jul 18, 2008 9:27 am Expression "four times saltier than"? |
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| Atomos wrote: | | My teacher taught me that "four times saltier than" was only used in spoken English. In formal written English, we have to use "four times as salty as" instead. I do not know if it is entirely correct but that's how we are taught in Vietnam. |
There are only these examples on "* times *ier than" in the BNC.
1 SEVERAL TIMES HEAVIER THAN 1 2 SEVEN TIMES HEAVIER THAN 1 3 27 TIMES FUNKIER THAN 1 4 200 TIMES HEAVIER THAN 1 5 1.4 TIMES HEAVIER THAN 1
#1 is from the prose-fiction register (written-spoken), #2 is from the social sciences (written), #3 and #4 from popular-lore (written-spoken), and #5 is from the natural sciences (written).
http://corpus.byu.edu/bnc/x.asp |
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Molly I'm a Communicator ;-)
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Nessie I'm a Communicator ;-)
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#14 (permalink) Fri Jul 18, 2008 12:36 pm Expression "four times saltier than"? |
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Hi Atomos
Was this supposed to be a specific "rule" exclusively for the word salty?  . |
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Yankee I'm a Communicator ;-)

Joined: 16 Apr 2006 Posts: 8265 Location: USA
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Atomos I'm new here and I like it ;-)

Joined: 18 Jul 2008 Posts: 25 Location: Vietnam
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| Phrase "Waiting to wait" | "yes, it is" or "yes, they are"? |