Comparisons, Adverb Questions

Dear Friends - For my Questions on Comparisons, I received an Expert reply (Mike - Magoosh) - which I am posting with this post. Thought it would be helpful for everyone.

Dear sa2222,
I'm very happy to help. These are excellent questions!!

1. Comparing one person with multiple people - using comparative form.
Are the below two sentences correct -
She is more interesting than her sisters.
She is shorter than her sisters.
OR it should be -
She is more interesting than any of her sisters.
The first two are perfectly fine. Both imply clear that that, in a one-on-one comparison, she would be "more interesting" or "shorter" than whichever sister was picked. Those are 100% correct. The final version is a little more formal, also perfectly correct.

2. Similarly, Singular and Plural comparison - Possessive case.
Frank's build, like that of his brothers, is broad.
Frank, like all his brothers, has a strong build.
examples in 2 are comparing singular entity (build) of singular noun (Frank) with Singular entity (build) of Plural noun (his brothers) -
Both are 100% correct. In the first one, antecedent of the pronoun "his" is in the possessive, but it's acceptable for a possessive pronoun to have its antecedent in the possessive. Good use of "that" in the comparison. Both sentences here are completely correct.

3. My cars are bigger than Brian's car.
My cars are bigger than Smiths' cars.
Plural entities (cars) of singular subject (MY) compared with singular entity(one car) of singular noun (Brian).
Plural entities (cars) of singular subject (MY) compared with plural entity(cars) of plural noun (Smiths').
Obviously, the nature of the comparisons is different, but both of these are perfectly correct. The first implies that any of the speaker's cars would be bigger in a one-on-one comparison with Brian's single car; if the speaker has N cars, there would be N individual comparisons. The second implies that any of the speaker's cars would be bigger in a one-on-one comparison with any of the Smiths' cars; if the speaker has N cars and the Smiths have M cars, there would be a total of N*M individual comparisons, and according to the second statement, in every single one of them, the speakers car would be bigger than the Smiths' car.

Kudos Please - I need them too!!

I personally feel a little rusty, so take this post with a grain of salt.


These are wrong, Quick cannot modify run.



These are correct.



All of these look correct.



Ah, this one is tricky.
I would say the first sentence is wrong, but for totally different reasons. It smells of faulty comparisons that the GMAT does A LOT.

Frank's build, like that of his brothers, is broad.

What you are saying is THIS: Frank's build, like Frank's build of his brothers, is broad.
"that" seem to have the antecedent Frank's build, something that is inadmissible.

Hope this helps.
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But isn't pronoun supposed to have noun as an antecedent? 'that' can refer back to 'build'. Frank's is just an adjective. Isn't it?

Thanks Souvik!! This helps a lot. Thank you!

You are correct about the Pronoun issue.
However when you use like, you are looking for an exact apple to apple comparison.
For example, The French Navy, unlike Germany's has more military benefits.
This can be made much better by changing it this way
France, unlike Germany, provides its navy with more military benefits.
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Please note that the following three sentences are the "RIGHT/CORRECT" sentences from Manhattan GMAT SC-

Frank build, like his brother's, is strong.
Frank's build, like that of his brother, is broad.
Frank, like his brother, has a strong build.

All I did in the two sentences pasted below was change the singular comparison to plural. So, instead of comparing with just one brother, i am comparing with all of Frank's brothers.
Frank's build, like that of his brothers, is broad.
Frank, like all his brothers, has a strong build.

Whoever, looking at this post. Please visit this page - questions-on-comparisons-gmat-sc-171829.html#p1369850

This has all clarifications listed out and approved by expert.

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