Greater than v/s More than : Verbal Questions

anujagarwal11

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07 Feb 2016, 21:56

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anujagarwal11

Can someone please explain when to use "greater than" and when to use "more than"?

As a general rule:

"Greater than" is used for uncountable nouns.
"More than" is used for countable nouns.

Can you please clarify the same with examples?

anujagarwal11

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07 Feb 2016, 22:39

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chetan2u

Hi anuj,

firstly what are countable and non countable nouns..

1)What you can count and ask for " how many?' like pebbles, houses, boys,girls etc
2)what you can not count and ask for " how much?' like water, pain, happiness etc..

I may not agree with the optimus rep..
MORE is used with both countable and non countable nouns, while GREATER than is used to compare sheer numbers, or level or degree of things..
YES, fewer is used with countable nouns and less than with uncountable nouns..

examples..
there are more roses in my garden than in her garden.. OK..
there are fewer roses in my garden than in her garden.. OK
there are greater/lesses roses in my garden than in her garden.. NO because roses are countable..

however if i write..
there are a greater number of roses in my garden than in her garden.. OK

another example..
she has drank more water than me.. ok here water is non countable..

Hope it helps

Hi chetan,

I am still confused on this:
There are a greater number of roses in my garden than in her garden.

Also, is this correct : There are more number of roses in my garden than in her garden.

chetan2u

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07 Feb 2016, 22:52

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anujagarwal11

chetan2u

Hi anuj,

firstly what are countable and non countable nouns..

1)What you can count and ask for " how many?' like pebbles, houses, boys,girls etc
2)what you can not count and ask for " how much?' like water, pain, happiness etc..

I may not agree with the optimus rep..
MORE is used with both countable and non countable nouns, while GREATER than is used to compare sheer numbers, or level or degree of things..
YES, fewer is used with countable nouns and less than with uncountable nouns..

examples..
there are more roses in my garden than in her garden.. OK..
there are fewer roses in my garden than in her garden.. OK
there are greater/lesses roses in my garden than in her garden.. NO because roses are countable..

however if i write..
there are a greater number of roses in my garden than in her garden.. OK

another example..
she has drank more water than me.. ok here water is non countable..

Hope it helps

Hi chetan,

I am still confused on this:
There are a greater number of roses in my garden than in her garden.

Also, is this correct : There are more number of roses in my garden than in her garden.

hi anuj,
in gmat lingo, greater should be used here..

from GMAT perspective..
there are three combination..
more/fewer for countable nouns..
more/less for noncountable nouns..
and greater/ less... for sheer number, percent , interest rate, cost, volume, distance..

more often than not you are tested on concepts of more/less and more/fewer..
and I am sure you would realize that you see 'greater' much more often in Quant.. greater than 700.. greater %, greater volume etc...

anujagarwal11

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07 Feb 2016, 23:33

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chetan2u

hi anuj,
in gmat lingo, greater should be used here..

from GMAT perspective..
there are three combination..
more/fewer for countable nouns..
more/less for noncountable nouns..
and greater/ less... for sheer number, percent , interest rate, cost, volume, distance..

more often than not you are tested on concepts of more/less and more/fewer..
and I am sure you would realize that you see 'greater' much more often in Quant.. greater than 700.. greater %, greater volume etc...

Hi Chetan,

The above explanation clarifies most of the doubts. Thanks for the help.

In the below sentence, is "greater than" correct as the sentence deals with rate?

In 1979 abundance of rain increased India's rice production to about 41 million tons, nearly 25 percent (more/greater) than the 1978 harvest.

chetan2u

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07 Feb 2016, 23:38

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anujagarwal11

chetan2u

hi anuj,
in gmat lingo, greater should be used here..

from GMAT perspective..
there are three combination..
more/fewer for countable nouns..
more/less for noncountable nouns..
and greater/ less... for sheer number, percent , interest rate, cost, volume, distance..

more often than not you are tested on concepts of more/less and more/fewer..
and I am sure you would realize that you see 'greater' much more often in Quant.. greater than 700.. greater %, greater volume etc...

Hi Chetan,

The above explanation clarifies most of the doubts. Thanks for the help.

In the below sentence, is "greater than" correct as the sentence deals with rate?

In 1979 abundance of rain increased India's rice production to about 41 million tons, nearly 25 percent (more/greater) than the 1978 harvest.

Hi anuj,
You are correct here..
since sentence is dealing with %/rate, greater will br prefered

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21 Feb 2016, 16:40

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anujagarwal11

Hi chetan,

I am still confused on this:
There are a greater number of roses in my garden than in her garden.

Also, is this correct : There are more number of roses in my garden than in her garden.

Just a quick note: choose whether to use "there is" or "there are" based on whether the subject is grammatically singular or plural.

In this case, even though roses is plural, the phrase number of roses is singular, so you'd use 'There is a greater number...'. You can tell that the phrase is singular either by looking at just the main noun and ignoring the modifier ('of roses' is a prepositional phrase, and therefore a modifier) or by plugging it into a simpler sentence. Only one of these should sound right:

The number of crayons is enormous.
The number of crayons are enormous.

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04 Mar 2016, 07:47

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GMAT explanation to the OG 2016 Q 10 should clarify your doubt.
This SC question uses both more and greater and the explanation should make clear the use of both these adverbs.

When more is used as an adverb it is used to highlight degree and extent .e.g use of more in phrases such as more likely.

But we have to be careful when more is used an adjective. When more is used as an adjective then it must indicate quantity.

However, greater is generally used as to indicate quantity.

The above is based on my understanding of the explanation to OG2016 SC 10 .

Any comments are welcome.

Kudos if some one finds the above helpful.

sgcfivegm

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25 Apr 2016, 19:18

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Put simply we use greater when the noun in question is a number. We can count the number of tulips, but a tulip itself is not a number. Some examples of nouns that are themselves numbers are: percent, interest rate, population, volume, distance, price, cost, and number.

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