prices

[Helena Goscilo]

Just as there are gradations of sobriety, so there are gradations of
correctness.
STRICTLY correct = "higher or lower prices" ("bigger and smaller" is wrong).
"Cheaper and more expensive prices" seems to be accepted nowadays, though
it is, of course,
tautological (higher prices=more expensive).  An analogous tautology,
almost universally invoked
nowadays, is "the reason why," which also isn't, strictly speaking,
correct.  Correct="the reason that," which
is an equivalent for "why," but one in a million native speakers, I
suspect, observes that rule.

Helena Goscilo, non-native

--On Monday, June 19, 2000, 9:48 AM +0300 "A.Str"
<itl1033 at ONLINE.KHARKOV.UA> wrote:r

> Hello, Seelangers
>
> I heard in the BBC the following expression: "...prices might be
> cheaper..." Well, I hear frequently that sort of expressions in my native
> language (Russian). I don't want to look like a snob but I really
> feel myself a bit funny when I hear this. I think that goods may
> be cheaper, services may be cheaper, I'm not sure, but maybe even
> humor may be cheaper (it certainly does in Russian!). But prices?
> they may be bigger or smaller, higher or lower, but cheaper...?
> What do you think?
>
> Aleksander Stratienko
>
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