Twice the birds as last year will migrate to the south this year.

Hi chetan2u / daagh ,

IMO- D....which is correct

Reasoning to eliminate E.
If we read option E.

E) The number of birds that will migrate to the south this year will be twice that of last year’s

That = The number of birds that will migrate to the south

=> The number of birds that will migrate to the south this year will be twice the number of birds that will migrate to the south of last year’s

The phrase--> the number of birds that will migrate to the south of last year’s

Here we have both-- Future tense and its also mentioning "Last Year". Therefore ELIMINATED

On the same reasoning I eliminated C

Is this correct reasoning to Eliminate E and C...??

Additionally, what is the reason to eliminate A and B.
I didn't consider A and B because D SOUNDS more correct..

Please assist.

Thanks and Regards,
Prakhar

Hi chetan2u,

Just saw that u have already given your reasoning to eliminate C and E.( Redundant usage of 'of')

Is my reasoning also correct...??

Hi,

The coloured portion will not be correct..
the auxiliary verb 'will' modifies/ talks of this year and cannot be faulted..
However 'as' is supposed to talk of an action, and since will is used for this year, we have to have a verb after as..
and word 'did' suitably gets that..

the reason for eliminating E and C is the usage of possessive form.. that of last year's..

The sentence could have been correct if it read..
The number of birds that will migrate to the south this year will be twice that of last year...

lets see the other choices..
A) Twice the birds as last year will migrate to the south this year.
Twice the birds in itself does not sound correct, It would be better to say twice the number of birds and also it is errorneously paralleling with last year..

However 'as' is supposed to talk of an action, and since will is used for this year, we have to have a verb after as..
and word 'did' suitably gets that..

B) This year, double the number of birds as last year will migrate to the south.
same as A... Also twice is better than double..

D) This year, twice as many birds will migrate to the south as did last year.
this is correct. it uses idiom as many as correctly

Explanation:

A) Twice the birds as last year... - The word‘ last year’ itself is not twice as the birds, but rather the number of birds last year must be compared to the number of birds this year.
B) ...double the number....as last year... - Again, the noun ‘last year’ is compared to the part ‘double the number’.
C) 'twice that of last year’s'. Use of double possessive makes this option wrong
D) CORRECT: twice as many......as –The word ‘twice’ modifies the word ‘many’, indicating that the number will be twice and not the birds themselves.
E) The number.....will be twice that of last years’ (redundancy.. “that of” and “last year’s” both point to the number).Use of double possessive makes this option wrong

I think the most of the wrong options have problem with comparison between number of birds and last year. For this reason, A and B are out.
C and E has Last year's -- now question is last year's what?
D is more clear, hence the answer.

Hi everyone!!

I am usually confused between the kind of structure which says .....as many/few ......as....... Where to place the two subjects being compared and how to ensure parallelism in such cases.

In the above case : This year, as many birds will migrate to the south as did last year.
Here, this year is being compared to last year. However, the structure as did last year seems to compare this year to something last year did. I am confused.
Can anyone help me out with this?

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