Twice As Far
Dec 06th 2011 09:51
how-to-phrase
(A) His house is twice as far away from the school as mine is, so he leaves his house fifteen minutes earlier than I do.
(B) His house is twice as far away from the school as mine is, so he leaves his house fifteen minutes earlier than I do mine.
(C) His house is twice as far away as mine is from the school, so he leaves his house fifteen minutes earlier than I do.
(D) It is twice as far from the school to his house as it is to mine, so he leaves his house fifteen minutes earlier than I do.
(E) It is twice as far from the school to his house as to mine, so he leaves his house fifteen minutes earlier than I do.
(F) The distance from the school to his house is twice as far as that to mine, so he leaves his house fifteen minutes earlier than I do.
(G) The distance from the school to his house is twice as far as to mine, so he leaves his house fifteen minutes earlier than I do.
Which sentence(s) do you think is(are) correct?
Thank you very much, everyone!
(B) His house is twice as far away from the school as mine is, so he leaves his house fifteen minutes earlier than I do mine.
(C) His house is twice as far away as mine is from the school, so he leaves his house fifteen minutes earlier than I do.
(D) It is twice as far from the school to his house as it is to mine, so he leaves his house fifteen minutes earlier than I do.
(E) It is twice as far from the school to his house as to mine, so he leaves his house fifteen minutes earlier than I do.
(F) The distance from the school to his house is twice as far as that to mine, so he leaves his house fifteen minutes earlier than I do.
(G) The distance from the school to his house is twice as far as to mine, so he leaves his house fifteen minutes earlier than I do.
Which sentence(s) do you think is(are) correct?
Thank you very much, everyone!
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(C) His house is twice as far away as mine is from the school, so he leaves his house fifteen minutes earlier than I do. This is valid, but sounds less natural.
(D) It is twice as far from the school to his house as it is to mine, so he leaves his house fifteen minutes earlier than I do. Again, this sounds valid, but less natural.
(E) It is twice as far from the school to his house as to mine, so he leaves his house fifteen minutes earlier than I do. Less natural.
(A) His house is twice as far away from (the) school as mine is, so he leaves (home) fifteen minutes earlier than I do. [The words in parentheses can be omitted. "Home" is better than "his house for two reasons: It avoids the repetition, and it works better with the parallel structure "than I do"; else we have to assume that the meaning ""he leaves his house fifteen minutes earlier than I leave his house" is not intended. More natural: "School is twice as far away from his house as it is from mine, so he leaves fifteen minutes earlier than I do." The trips being compared are from home to school, so it is more natural to measure the distances in that direction as well.]
(B) It is twice as far to school for him, so he leaves his house fifteen minutes earlier than I do mine. [If you want to mention the houses explicitly in the second half of the sentence, it is more natural to leave them out in the first half. "To" establishes "school" as the goal of the two trips being compared, "leaves" establishes the two houses as the starting points.]
(C) His house is twice as far away as mine is from the school, so he leaves his house fifteen minutes earlier than I do. [Distance measured in the wrong direction, "his house" mentioned twice, and the ambiguity mentioned in (A) are all weaknesses of this version.]
(E) It is twice as far to school from his house as from mine, so he leaves his house fifteen minutes earlier than I do.
(F) The distance from his house to school is twice the distance from mine, so he leaves his house fifteen minutes earlier than I do.
(G) The distance from the school to his house is twice as far as to mine, so he leaves his house fifteen minutes earlier than I do.
(1) When you are talking about trips in a certain direction, it is natural to measure the distances in that direction as well.
(2) "The distance is twice as far" is redundant; "far" can only measure distance. "The distance is twice as long" makes sense, but "It is twice as far" is more natural.
(3) If you establish "his house" as the starting point of his trip in one half of the sentence, it is awkward to mention it again as the starting point of the trip in the second half of the sentence.
(4) The noun "home" means the house of whichever individual is being talked about; this can be used in this sentence.
The essence of what you want to communicate is this:
"He has twice as far to go, so he leaves fifteen minutes earlier."
This is probably a better sentence than any of the others, but you first need to establish that trips from home to school are being talked about, and that his trip and "my" trip are being compared. In a natural piece of writing, this context will usually be established separately instead of putting all of this information into one sentence.
Here are some possibilities containing all of the information:
"It's twice as far to school for him as for me, so he leaves home fifteen minutes earlier."
"He lives twice as far as I do from school, so he leaves home fifteen minutes earlier."
Thanks a lot =)