Exercise:
- When still a small boy, my family moved to Centerville.
- Constantly in conversation with some one broadens our ideas and our vocabulary.
- It was a trick which opposing teams were sure to be baffled.
- They departed for the battle front with the knowledge they might never return.
- At the banquet were all classes of people; I met a banker and plumber.
[Comparisons]
4. Comparisons must be completed logically.
- Wrong: His speed was equal to a racehorse.
- Wrong: Of course my opinion is worth less than a lawyer.
- Wrong: The shells which are used in quail hunting are different than in rabbit hunting.
Compare a thing with another thing, an abstraction with another abstraction. Do not carelessly compare a thing with a part or quality of another thing. Always ask yourself: What is compared with what?
- Right: His speed was equal to that of a racehorse.
- Right: Of course my opinion is worth less than a lawyer's.
- Right: The shells used in quail hunting are different from those used in rabbit hunting.
- Self-contradictory: Chicago is larger than any city in Illinois.
- Right: Chicago is larger than any other city in Illinois.
- Impossible: Chicago is the largest of any other city in Illinois.
- Right: Chicago is the largest of all the cities in Illinois. [Or] Chicago is the largest city in Illinois.
[Note.]—After a comparative, the subject of the comparison should be excluded from the class with which it is compared; after a superlative, the subject of the comparison should be included within the class.
- Wrong:
- taller of all the girls.
- tallest of any girl.
- Right:
- taller than any other girl [comparative].
- tallest of all the girls [superlative].
Exercise: