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GLOW: Grammar Lessons On the Web For the exclusive use of employees of the U.S. Department of State--by Tillyer Associates |
Comparing with as...as, so...that, such...that
We compare similar things with as...as.
Use this pattern:
| noun or pronoun | verb | as | adjective or adverb |
as | noun or pronoun |
| My twin brother is as old as me. |
| My twin brother is as old as I am. |
| Ahmed's Mercedes is as expensive as Mahmoud's Jaguar. |
| Baseball is as popular in America as cricket is in Pakistan. |
Note that the last example adds a verb plus a prepositional phrase..."is in Pakistan."
Add not to as...as to express dissimilarity.
| Colombia isn't as big as Brazil. |
| North Korea isn't as rich as South Korea. |
| The RSO isn't as high-ranking as the Ambassador. |
| The visa office isn't as busy as it was yesterday. |
Sometimes this pattern is more polite than a
straightforward comparison.
The word "quite" makes it
even more polite.
| Compare: | With: |
| Ecuador is smaller than Peru. Peru is bigger than Ecuador. |
Ecuador isn't quite as big as Peru. |
This pattern can be used with adverbs, too.
| Ahmed's Mercedes goes as fast as Mahmoud's Jaguar. |
| The conference didn't last as long as it did last year. |
| The new FSO doesn't speak Arabic as badly as the last one. |
| It's raining as heavily today as it was yesterday. |
Caution:
What does this mean?
| The new Ambassador speaks to FSNs as politely as Americans. |
This sentence is ambiguous; it has two possible meanings:
| The new Ambassador speaks to FSNs as politely as he speaks to Americans. | The new Ambassador speaks to to FSNs as politely as Americans speak to FSNs. |
so...that, such...that
We use so and such to make adjectives and adverbs stronger. We use so before an adjective or an adverb. We use such a before an adjective and a singular noun. We use such before an adjective and a noncount noun or a plural count noun.
This form usually shows a cause and a result:
| The foreign minister | was so angry that | he called his ambassador home. |
| The men in the motorpool | worked so hard on the car that | they didn't go home until 8:30. |
| Kermit | was such a lazy worker that | his supervisor fired him. |
| His country | is such a good friend of U.S. that | people there don't need visas to visit. |
| That | was such good wine that | I bought a whole case of it. |
| I | make such strong coffee that | Raymond can't drink it. |
Americans drop that when they speak. This omission doesn't change the meaning.
This pattern can be used with many, few, much, and little.
| There were so many people at the reception that we ran out of food. |
| The Embassy had so few visitors on Friday that we closed early. |
| Racquel had so much work to do that she had to come in early. |
| Jasper had so little time to type the letter that he made a lot of mistakes. |