Writing section - comparisons

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1

<p>I am having a little trouble with Writing questions dealing with comparisons; I can guess pretty well on them, but I'd like to know if there's any sort of a rule for dealing with comparisons of two or more things, etc. If I am not making sense, let me provide you with an example question from the Blue Book:</p>

<p>1) Lions and tigers may be identical in size, but the tiger is the fiercer animal and the lion the strongest.</p>

<p>In this instance, I definitely recognize that "the strongest" is erroneous and should be "the stronger animal," but this next example, from the same Writing segment, confused me:</p>

<p>2) Nearly all of the editors of the magazine agree that of the two articles to be published, Fujimura's is the more exciting.</p>

<p>I can see that the answer here is "more exciting" because it sounds strange to me, but is there any sort of grammatical rule I can follow here to guide me to the answer? Is it the case that when a comparison of one object (Fujimora's article) is made to a group (the two articles), the superlative form is used, and when a comparison is made between two things directly (the lions and tigers), the comparitive form is used? Or do I have this wrong?</p>

2

<p>when comparing a limited group of objects. words like better and stronger is correct</p>

<p>but when talking about a wide range of things like... The strongest shark is the great white shark.</p>

<p>When its limited it ends in er. If its not confined to a finite number of things ends in est.</p>

3

<p>when there are 2 items, to compare one with the other use -er.
with 3 +, use -est. </p>

<p>simple as that.</p>

4

<p>I recognize that, but if you look at the second of the two problems I posted, "more exciting" is incorrect despite the fact that a comparison is being made between two articles.</p>

<p>Any other input?</p>

5

<p>I think it may be this:</p>

<p>"The" before "more exciting" that changes that phrase into a noun thus making "more exciting" wrong.</p>

<p>The sentence could read correctly without "the." Or, with a "one" after "more exciting," so the "more exciting one."</p>

<p>"more exciting" in itself is an adjective.</p>

6

<p>ya i believe you have to say more exciting one, not just more exciting. i don't believe the "more" is the word at fault, becaue according to basic grammar, more is supposed to be there.</p>

7

<p>Ahhh OK, so "more exciting" is essentially being used as a noun, which does not fly.</p>

<p>Thank you guys :).</p>

8

<p>not to be mean, but you're all wrong, there's absolutely nothing wrong with the second sentence
...'s article is (the more interesting)
used as a noun, and thats fine
theres not an error in everything, plus that question is in the blue book and i remember dobulechecking that there were no errors
there weren't</p>

<p>maybe i am remembering incorrectly, but i am almost positive</p>

9

<p>Wrong.</p>

<p>It's "more exciting;" p540/561 of the Blue Book.</p>

10

<p>Oops, there is no error:</p>

<p><a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=38625%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=38625&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

11

<p>Agh, I double checked, and according to the book, there is no error. Wow.</p>

<p>Sorry for the rude response, aeln2007.</p>

12

<p>no problemo</p>

<p>it kinda sounds wrong, cause it sounds weird, but i guess it's not</p>