[Ads-l] "than how"

Wilson Gray hwgray at GMAIL.COM
Wed Jan 28 04:34:12 UTC 2015


On Tue, Jan 27, 2015 at 9:37 PM, Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu>
wrote:

> He also consistently uses "what" comparatives, e.g. "he's a more =
> efficient passer than what he used to be". Most recently:
>
> "To me, the punishment for the Patriots and/or Bill Belichick has to be =
> more severe than what the punishment was for the Saints."
>

Somehow, these seem to be perfectly okay, whether the "what" is added/not
deleted or not.

FWIW, I was taught in high school that "or not" is redundant when used with
"whether." Somehow, I was never able to internalize that one. My own belief
is that you *always* use "or not," but there are times - e.g. "regardless
of whether ... (or not)" - when you can delete it, if that's your bag.



-- 
-Wilson
-----
All say, "How hard it is that we have to die!"---a strange complaint to
come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
-Mark Twain

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org



More information about the Ads-l mailing list