The answer is that the expression is based on how we, as humans, interpret geography. We refer to smaller, relatively unknown areas by the name of a larger, more well-known, area the smaller area is near.
By saying «Greater Toronto», we identify the city of Toronto and the smaller areas close by, at the same time acknowledging that these smaller areas are not, in reality, part of the city of Toronto. It is the same as saying «Toronto and its surrounding suburbs.»
This nature can be observed when meeting someone unfamiliar to the area in question. If Sally lived in the suburbs of Washington DC, and met somebody from California at a conference, Sally would say «I’m from Washington DC», even though she lives in Falls Church, VA, and does not live within the boundaries of the city.
When someone asks me where I live, I would respond with «Charleston, WV» even though I don’t live within the city limits, and the city is a 20 minute drive from my home.
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#1
In my line of work, I am often a co-author on reports written by other people and I review and edit the reports and make comments. Sometimes an author writes that something is greater «compared with» something else, when I would use «than.» For instance I am presently reviewing a report that is full of sentences like «Height was greater for men compared with women.» I would write «Height was greater for men than for women.» Am I off-base? Are both correct? To me the «greater than …compared with» construction really doesn’t sound right but it seems fairly common. All these authors are highly educated people by the way. I did do a forum search but didn’t come up with anything that seemed too relevant.
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#2
Well if you think about the sentence in its inverse, it sounds correct, «Compared with women, height was greater for men.»
That’s usually how i tell if something is correct, even though I personally feel that it doesn’t «flow» and would think along the same lines as you.
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#3
«Height was greater for men than for women.»
As far as I’m concerned, this is not a complete sentence—so it’s difficult to comment
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#4
It has a subject and a verb and a predicate, so why wouldn’t you consider it a complete sentence?
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#5
Well, if I said to you “Width is greater for him than for her,” would you understand what I meant? It might have a subject and predicate, but that doesn’t necessarily give it sense, I think.
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#6
My problem with «compared with» is the word «with». In my opinion, if you said «Height was greater for men, compared to women», it would be fine.
To me, «compare with» would be acceptable when used like this:
«Women’s heights do not compare with men’s».
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#7
«Greater» is already a comparative form. There is no need to say anything about «comparing».
The height of an average man is greater than that of an average woman.
An average man’s height is greater than an average woman’s.
If one wants to use the word «compare», I think the sentence needs to be reworked:
When men were compared to women, it was discovered that men were taller.
In a comparison of men’s and women’s heights, the men’s heights were greater.
Men, compared to women, have greater height.
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#8
I think X is greater compared with Y is a pretty clumsy construction, even if the meaning is understandable in most instances. If we work at it a bit, we can come up with examples where its use would be misleading or would mean something else entirely:
The ratings were higher for apple pies compared with cherry pies.
This could mean two things:
(1) People rated apple pies higher when they were comparing them to cherry pies [than they did when they were comparing apple pies to lemon meringue pies, for example].
(2) People rated apple pies higher than they rated cherry pies.
As we see in (2) there is no ambiguity if we just use good old comparative + than.
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#9
Thanks all. I may not have been completely clear. In this kind of non-literary context, there isn’t an option to rework the sentences to be more graceful in some of the ways that you all have suggested. The choice is between (a) «Mean height for men was greater than for women» and (b) » Mean height for men was greater compared with women.» I think (a) is fine and I don’t like (b) at all. So my question is basically — am I missing something here somehow? Is there any good reason to use (b) instead of (a)? And is (b) even grammatically correct? It seems odd to me, but so many people seem to use that construction seen in (b) that I start to feel maybe there is some reason to say it that way that I have missed.
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#10
No, you are right. B seems to me to be not only awkward, but incorrect. The mean height for men is not greater than the mean height for women only when the two are compared; the mean height for men is greater whether you compare the two figures or not. Choice A is clearly an improvement.
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#11
…
For instance I am presently reviewing a report that is full of sentences like «Height was greater for men compared with women.»
…
Please continue your campaign against this strange structure
For men, height was greater than what?
I have no idea.
Was it greater than width?
… than arm-span?
… than twice the inside leg measurement?
… than pi times the waist measurement?
And what do women have to do with this?
Don’t assume that people who are highly-educated are also competent communicators
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#12
Oh dear
I’m clearly one of those highly-educated poor communicators.
I don’t have too much of a problem with the «compared with» structure.
Though in order of preference, I’d use:
Mean height for men was greater than for women
Mean height for men was greater as compared with [for] women
Mean height for men was greater compared with [for] women.
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#13
I couldn’t agree more, panjandrum (your post #11). This is exactly the point I was trying to make in posts #3 and 5.
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#14
A. is fine.
B. is awkward, wordy, and amateurish, in a way that I encounter every day in a government office, where people seem to think they are being paid by the word.
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#15
I see it in scientific writing. Here are some randomly selected titles of scientifc journal articles:
Serum erythrocyte sedimentation rate is higher among ethnic South Asian compared
to ethnic Chinese ischemic stroke patients.
Reef Fishes Have Higher Parasite Richness at Unfished Palmyra Atoll Compared to
Fished Kiritimati Island.Ecohealth.
Type D Patients Report Poorer Health Status Prior to and After Cardiac
Rehabilitation Compared to Non-Type D Patients.
greater than — перевод на русский
In that respect, I am happy to say that your knowledge is greater than mine.
Я счастлив сообщить вам, что в этом отношении ваши познания больше моих.
I promise to get you funds equal to… or greater than whatever those companies gave your last campaign.
Я обещаю вам выделить больше финансирования, чем ваши фирмы выделяют на вашу компанию.
You say this is greater than us, and maybe it is… but this is us fighting this fight, Mulder, not you.
Ты говоришь, это больше нас, и может быть это так и есть… но эта битва — наша битва, Малдер, не твоя.
Remember also that no servant is greater than his master.
Помните также, ни один слуга не больше господина своего.
it has a total mass of about six million, billion billion kilograms; even on the apparently watery crust, the mass of the land is forty times greater than that of the oceans.
Её масса — около шести миллионов, миллиардов, биллионов килограммов Даже при том, что на Земле очень много воды. Масса суши в 40 раз больше массы океанов.
Показать ещё примеры для «больше»…
It seems that, in today’s world, the power to absolve debt is greater than the power of forgiveness.
Похоже, что в современном мире сила, которая возвращает долги… сильнее силы всепрощения.
My powers are greater than yours, Prue.
Я сильнее тебя, Прю.
My grief is greater than I.
Mое горе сильнее меня.
His will is greater than mine.
Его воля сильнее моей.
She things her powers greater than ours.
Она думает, что её власть сильнее нашей.
Показать ещё примеры для «сильнее»…
NARRATOR: «No one would have believed in the end of the 19th century that this world was being watched keenly and closely by intelligences greater than man’s and yet as mortal as his own.
«Никто не поверил бы в последние годы девятнадцатого столетия, что за всем происходящим на Земле зорко и внимательно следят существа более развитые, чем человек, хотя такие же смертные, как и он.
Within the soul of a man, Shane, when he realizes his relationship in the great circle, …his oneness with the universe and all its powers, …when he realizes that of the circle of the universe… is a power greater than his self.
Свое единство со Вселенной и всей ее силой. Когда он осознает, что в сердце Вселенной скрыта сила, более великая, чем он сам. Эту силу нельзя на себя натянуть, как майку.
I’m sorry, mam. No liquids greater than three ounces allowed.
Сожалею, жидкости более ста миллилитров не допускаются.
There cannot be any issue greater than this, at the moment.
Сейчас нет ничего более серьезного.
They’re merely pawns, manipulated by forces far greater than they can conceive.
Простые пешки, которыми манипулируют силы более могущественные, чем они могут себе представить.
Показать ещё примеры для «более»…
If Andreotti had wanted to kill everyone he found troublesome, he’d have had to take on enemies much greater than Pecorelli.
Если бы Андреотти хотел убить каждого, кто вызывал неприятности, ему бы пришлось столкнуться с врагами куда могущественнее Пекорелли.
[air howling] [man’s voice] There’s a time in a pup’s life when they realize there are forces greater than themselves at work in the universe.
[вой ветра] [Голос человека] В жизни каждого щенка наступает время когда он осознает, что во вселенной существую силы могущественнее их.
I often turn to a force greater than myself.
Я всегда прибегаю к помощи силы, которая могущественнее меня.
In your arrogance you considered yourself greater than shiva himself!
В своем высокомерии ты возомнил себя могущественнее самого Шивы!
He says he wields power greater than magic.
Он сказал, что владеет силой могущественнее магии.
Показать ещё примеры для «могущественнее»…
You think Keaton’s greater than Chaplin?
Ты считаешь Китона более великим, чем Чаплина?
Even greater than Sunny.
Даже более великим, чем Санни.
Greater than anything you’ve imagined!
Более великим, чем ты когда-либо мог себе представить!
Yet neither have I seen a warrior greater than Bra’tac.
Я еще не видел воина более великого, чем Братак.
If you’re looking for a weapon, some say there’s none greater than the Scriptures themselves.
Если вы ищете оружее, говорят, что нет ничего более великого, чем сами Писания.
Показать ещё примеры для «более великим»…
I complied… making that young fool of a nephew look far more heroic than nature ever intended-— an act on my part far greater than anything accomplished by Hercules or Achilles.
Я подчинился… И сделал этого глупца племянника куда более героичным, чем предопределено природой. Мой поступок во много раз превосходит все подвиги
And you can break yourself free from your hereditary patterns, cultural codes, social beliefs, and prove once and for all that the power within you is greater than the power that’s in the world.
И вы можете высвободиться из-под воздействия своих наследственных склонностей, культурных норм, общественных стереотипов, и доказать раз и навсегда, что сила внутри вас превосходит силы внешнего мира.
It’s far greater than I anticipated.
И она намного превосходит все мои ожидания
And with a force significantly greater than a nuclear warhead.
А мощность удара превосходит мощность ядерной боеголовки.
Cost is greater than return.
Цена превосходит доход.
Показать ещё примеры для «превосходит»…
If the cause is greater than his own life.
Если цель важнее его собственной жизни.
The London’s need is greater than ours, Sister.
Потребности Лондонской больницы важнее, сестра.
What could be greater than a national emergency?
Что может быть важнее национальной безопасности?
An act of justice greater than the man.
Акт правосудия важнее человека.
Our dear Blue Princess, blessed and cursed with royal blood… let us today be greater than ourselves.
Наша дорогая Голубая принцесса, одаренная и проклятая ханской кровью… пусть сегодняшний день будет важнее нас.
Показать ещё примеры для «важнее»…
Severe deficit in the communal balance, … the number of unemployed is greater than that of the inhabitants, … poceadas streets, destroyed buildings … the historic invaded by rats, … in short, a kind of year 1000.
Огромный дефицит городского бюджета. число безработных превышает численность населения. Ужасные дороги, обветшалые дворцы, исторический центр захвачен армией крыс.
Overall, species loss is now occurring at a rate 1 ,000 times greater than the natural background rate.
В целом, скорость вымирания видов сейчас примерно в 1000 раз превышает скорость вымирания в обычных условиях.
As a result, the claims against the estate are greater than the assets.
В результате, его долги превышают стоимость его имущества.
Your knowledge of genetic engineering is even greater than ours.
Твои познания генной инженерии превышают наши.
And as in any business, the probability of success must always be greater than the risk incurred.
И, как и в любом другом деле, шансы на успех всегда должны превышать степень риска.