Let how to talk about quantities in comparisons on GMAT Sentence Corrections
There’s actually a math question on the GRE entitled “Quantitative Comparison“, an alternative math question that resembles nothing asked on the GMAT. This article is not about that at all. This article is about GMAT Verbal questions: specifically, Sentence Correction question in which numerical quantities are discussed and compared.
Countable vs. Uncountable
Some things in life (cars, cats, houses, lawnmowers, etc.) come in countable units. The hallmark of items that are countable nouns is that we would ask, “how many?” (how many cars? how many cats? etc.)
Some things in life (air, water, pleasure, pain, science, art, money, etc.) can come in varying quantities, but there are no countable units; rather, these things come in what you might call uncountable bulk. The hallmark of uncountable nouns is that we would ask the question “how much?” (How much air is in that tire? How much pain was he in? How much science does she know?)
This distinction between countable vs. uncountable will be important below.
Getting bigger: more vs. greater
When something countable increases, we use “more”
1) Holland has more tulips than does any other country in Western Europe.
Tulips are separate: you can count how many tulips you have.
When something uncountable increases, we also use also “more”
2) The US State of Georgia has more land than does the state of Pennsylvania.
3) It costs more to go to the ballgame than to go to the opera.
Land is an uncountable noun, and in #3, the implicit noun is “money”, which is also uncountable.
The question arises: when do we use “greater” rather than “more”? 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.
4) The area of Georgia is greater than that of Pennsylvania.
5) The price of a trip to the ballgame is greater than the cost of a night at the opera.
6) Call option premia are greater when interest rates are higher.
(Notice, for certain economic quantities, we will use “higher” for an increase.) In general, things take “more” but numbers take “greater.” The “increasing” case is the easier of the two cases.
Getting smaller: less vs. fewer
I will warn you: we are coming up on one of the most frequently made mistakes in spoken English. Even otherwise highly literate and intelligent people routinely make this mistake. Yet, the GMAT will penalize you for making this mistake. It’s the confusion of “less” and “fewer.”
When something uncountable decreases, we use “less”:
7) Pennsylvania has less land than does Georgia.
8) I have gotten less water in my basement since sealing the windows.
OK, now get ready for the mistake-zone. When something countable decreases, we use “fewer”:
9) Female drivers tend to get fewer speeding tickets.
10) My dorm had fewer international students.
11) When fewer people are unemployed, the interest rates tend to rise.
12) If you were rich, would you have fewer problems?
It’s quite possible that some of those, or even all of those, “sound” wrong. Many many people would make the mistake of using the word “less” in those sentences even though the word “fewer” is 100% correct. If you can count it, you need to use “fewer” instead of “less.” In other words, whenever you would use “how many?” instead of “how much?”, you need to use “fewer” instead of “less.”
By the way, the winner for the all-time most widespread grammatically incorrect sign: “ten items or less”. How many times have you seen that grammatical error at the grocery store?
Mercifully, when we compare numbers, and numbers decrease, we can simply go back to using “less.”
13) The population of Mongolia is less than that of Los Angeles.
14) The cost of a night at the opera is less than total cost of a day at the ballgame.
15) The melting point of zinc is less than that of copper.
BTW, “melting point” is a temperature, so it is indeed a number.
Summary
The more of these rules you remember, the greater the number of GMAT SC questions you will get correct, in less time, and the fewer mistakes you will make!
Instructive!! Thank Mike^_^!!
You are quite welcome!
Mike
Mike,
I have a related question about “most” -
What’s the difference btween:
Most voters voted for Mr. Romney.
Mr. Romney got most votes.
My opinion : 1 => >50% voted for Mr. R
2 => Romney could have got 40% votes but that number is greater than others’ votes.
Please let me know your thoughts.
-The Dark Knight
Dear Dark Knight:
I would say, first of all, *both* of them are vulnerable to the majority vs. plurality question — we would need more context. Furthermore, the GMAT would be far more formal — they would never repeat the similar words in #1 (“voters voted”) or use the very casual construction “got … votes.” I would say, for the GMAT and for business English, eliminate the word “got” from your vocabulary.
Does all this make sense?
Mike
Do you mind elaborating on this vulnerability — plurality vs majority in both the contexts? Appreciate your help.
Thanks
Both of the sentences you gave were very simple, and in many ways quite unlike GMAT SC sentences. One had 5 words, and the other had 6 words. A sentence that simple, that brief, absolutely *invites* ambiguity. You will never see a 6-word sentence on the GMAT SC — that’s unthinkable. A much more fleshed-out sentence, typical of the GMAT, would resolve any ambiguity. For example:
1) Although no candidate received a majority, more voters cast their ballots for Mr. Landon that for any other candidate.
That’s an example that gives a clear description of a plurality situation; the description makes evident that no majority has occurred.
2) In a stunning victory that has never been equaled in this county’s history, Ms. Pankhurst captured more than 73% of the the ballots, what one commentator called a “thunderous mandate.”
That’s an example of another more GMAT SC-like sentence, which makes completely clear that we are talking about a majority, not simply a plurality.
One of the ideals on GMAT SC, and in business writing, is absolutely univocal clarity, and often that requires a few words to specify properly. Does all this make sense?
Mike
Thanks Mike……
Sir, you are quite welcome.
Mike
Hi Mike,
‘It costs more to go to the ballgame than to go to the opera.’
You mentioned money is uncountable noun so we should use ‘much’ or ‘more’ in this sentence ?
Faruk
As I say in this blog, in a comparative *statement*, the uncountable noun takes “more” — “It costs more to go to the ballgame than to go to the opera” —- but in a *question*, the uncountable noun takes “much” — “How much does it cost to go to the opera?” Follow the link for “countable vs. uncountable” to see a full break-down of all the cases.
Mike
nouns that are themselves numbers – great concept.
Thanks a ton Mike
You are quite welcome.
Mike