Although Johannes Brahms lived longer than Beethoven, his collected wo

Question

Although Johannes Brahms lived longer than Beethoven, his collected works include only four symphonies,  five fewer than those of Beethoven .

A. five fewer than those of Beethoven
B. five fewer than Beethoven
C. five less than Beethoven
D. five less than those of Beethoven
E. five less than the symphonies of Beethoven

zhanbo · Accepted Answer

My answer is  (A) . It took me 46 seconds.

The difference between "fewer than" and "less than". If one is referring to a quantity which is countable, then “fewer than” is used. “Less than” is used for quantity which cannot be counted.

(A) "symphonies" is a countable noun. "Fewer than" is correctly used. "Those of Beethoven" = "Symphonies of Beethoven".

(B) Cannot compare "symphonies" with "Beethoven".

(CDE) "symphonies" is a countable noun. "Less than" is applied incorrectly.

TarunKumar1234 · Answer

Although Johannes Brahms lived longer than Beethoven, his collected works include only four symphonies, five fewer than those of Beethoven.

A. five fewer than those of Beethoven -> we are comparing collected works. Let's keep it.
B. five fewer than Beethoven ->collected works shouldn't be compared with a person. Incorrect.
C. five less than Beethoven -> fewer is used for countable noun. Incorrect.
D. five less than those of Beethoven -> Same as C. Incorrect.
E. five less than the symphonies of Beethoven -> Same as C. Incorrect.

So, I think A.

NarayanaGupta007 · Answer

I took only 34 seconds for me

Bunuel · Answer

Magoosh Official Explanation

Split #1:  the comparison. This is tricky, because the comparison in the "although" clause is different from the comparison in the main part of the sentence. The "although" clause compares the two men themselves, Brahms and Beethoven, but the subject of the main clause, and hence one term of the comparison, is "his   collected works." This means, the parallel term must be "the collected works of Beethoven," which we can abbreviate as "those of Beethoven." The comparisons to Beethoven the person (in choices (B) & (C)). Technically, the collected works of each composer includes the symphonies of each composer, so it would be incorrect to compare the collected works of one composer to the symphonies of the other --- (E) makes this subtle mistake. Only (A) & (D) complete the comparison with correct parallelism.

Split #2:  less vs fewer. This difficult distinction is discussed in this blog post. If we are discussing something that is countable, that comes in discrete individual countable units, then we use "few" and "fewer": "fewer notes", "fewer conductors", "fewer oboes", etc. If we are discussing something that comes in uncountable bulk, not in units, we use "less": "less music", "less volume", "less passion", etc. Symphonies are individual units and we can count them. Therefore, "less" is wrong and "fewer" is correct. Choices (C) & (D) & (E) make the mistake using "less" --- this will sound natural to most native English speakers, because this is a very widespread mistake --- but these choices are unambiguously incorrect.

Choice (A) is the only possible answer.

VerbalBot · Answer

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Although Johannes Brahms lived longer than Beethoven, his collected wo

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Although Johannes Brahms lived longer than Beethoven, his collected wo

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