2017-10-05 Grammar: comparing noun quantities

Greg Malivuk
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http://www.pastebin.com/u/gmalivuk - notes from all classes
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Homework: use the information on p. 174 to write two comparative sentences about each pair of countries.
Libya doesn’t have as many official languages as Luxembourg.
Libya’s total GDP is considerably more than Luxembourg’s. (This is a comparison of the noun.)
	-> Lybia makes much more money than Luxembourg. (This is a comparison of amount.)
Switzerland has considerably more money than Swaziland. (amount)
	= Switzerland has a considerably higher GDP (per capita) than Swaziland. (adjective)
Swaziland has substantially more people living in poverty than Switzerland.
Taiwan has as many official languages as Thailand. (or “as few”, because it’s 1)
Thailand makes slightly less money than Taiwan.
= Thailand makes almost/nearly as much money as Taiwan.
Taiwan makes much more money per person than Thailand.
	(Taiwanese people make much more money than Thai people.)
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https://www.gapminder.org/tools/ - compare lots of different information over time for every country
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p. 175 exercise 8 - Find this information about your partner, and then make sentences comparing the amounts in the table.
1 Neither my partner nor I have taken the TOEFL. (We wouldn’t say “as many” or “as few” if the number is zero.)
  None of us has taken the TOEFL.
2 My partner has fewer rooms in her apartment than I have.
  My partner’s apartment has fewer rooms than mine.
  My partner has three fewer rooms in her apartment than I do.
3 My partner knows exactly the same number of languages as me. (comparison of “number”)
  My partner knows exactly as many languages as me. (comparison of amount)
  My partner knows twice as many languages as me.
  My partner knows two more languages than me.
  I know half as many languages as my partner.
  I knew two fewer languages than my partner.
4 I’d like to have many more children than my partner.
5 My partner has visited many more countries than I have.
6 My partner has nearly as many family members as me.
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There’s no structural problem with, “I have a few fewer family members than my partner.”
	(It still sounds weird, so we don’t say it, like we don’t say “pretty pretty”.)