Standard Four Language Patterns: “MORE THAN”… “LESS THAN...”

Objective: Use more than... and less than... to make comparisons of quantity (number). Prerequisite: Knowledge of count nouns and mass nouns. Count nouns are those that we can count easily like people, sweets, cakes etc. Mass nouns are those that do not take a plural form like salt, pepper, soup etc. “More than” and “less than” are used in making comparisons. They are the most common ways of making comparison. When we talk of comparison, we mean that we are looking at two items. The items could be people, places or things. We use the pattern more than when an item has a greater number than the other. We use the pattern less than when one item has a smaller number than the other. Examples of sentences using more than include: There are more sacks of maize than potatoes in the store. We were served more sweets than biscuits at the party. Kenyans take more tea than coffee. He has earned more "Bonga" Points than I. Now let us look at sentences with “less than”. He has less money than I. She likes less margarine on her bread than I do. His plate has less food than mine. It is now time for you to explore your environment. Give examples from the items/situations you usually compete in. Your examples should have just two words e.g. more goals, more compositions, more sums, more friends, more towns. We have reached that stage that you have to construct your own sentences. They should look like these: I have scored more goals than you. I have visited more towns than you. I have written more compositions than you. I have solved more sums than you. I have more friends than you. I have visited more towns than you. Construct at least ten sentences. We now turn our attention to “less than”. Supply the names of the food items that people add to the main dish or eat along with the main dish e.g. sugar, salt, pepper, spices, soup, sauce etc. Your sentences will look like these: She uses less sugar than I. He uses less sauce than I. Now construct your own sentences using salt, pepper and spices. Finally, replace “less than” with “more than” in the sentences that you have just constructed. They will look like these: She uses more sugar than I. He uses more sauce than I. Notice that you can use “more than” with both count and mass nouns, while less than can only be used with mass nouns. NB. To show a smaller quantity with count nouns we use “fewer than” e.g. He has fewer friends than I.