All about comparison: Theory and questions with OE and OA

In this comparison guide, I noticed the following examples: "He has more comics than me." "They have as much food as we." Why does one uses "me" while the other uses "we" instead of "us"?

Hello, Victorz. The short answer is that they are both correct, but so, too, would be the counterpart to the first sentence. Consider:

1) He has more comics than I.
Rationale: Than is being used as a conjunction, and the sentence conveys that someone has more comics than I have. In the original sentence, than is being used as a preposition instead, making the noun that follows it the object of the preposition, thereby justifying the use of me. This is a controversial subject, whether than is a conjunction (more traditional) or preposition, and context can typically steer the reader in one direction or the other. But in an isolated sentence, all we can say is that either interpretation is valid. Please refer to this Grammar Girl article on the topic.

2) They have as much food as us.
Rationale: As... as is an idiomatic phrase construct that joins like entities. As such, there is no part of speech it falls under. In the sentence at hand, we need to join as much food with a noun to create a proper comparison between nouns, and it would not make sense to say that they have as much food as us have. Us is the object of a preposition, not a subject.

I hope that helps clarify your concerns. If you have further questions, feel free to ask. Good luck with your studies.

- Andrew

Am I blind? just can not find the link to the mentioned documents

I fixed that. Can you see the docs now?

Yes!!!


Thank you so much!

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