DAILY GRAMMAR (DG)
1. Serious students attend their lectures at all cost. (No)
Serious students attend their lectures at all costs. (Yes)
Serious students attend their lectures at any cost. (Yes)
(The meaning of the idiom, "at all costs", means "no matter what the cost may be to you". The meaning is similar to "at any cost", which does not require any "s".)
2. My handset is more superior than yours. (No)
My mobile phone/ cellphone is superior to yours. (Yes)
(There are three issues here. 1. A "handset" is part of the telephone that contains the transmitter and the receiver. It is always held when dialling a phone number. A mobile phone/ cellphone is a portable phone on cellular network technology that is used to make and receive calls. 2. "Superior" is already a comparative adjective and it does not require "more". 3. "Superior" attracts or collocates with "to", not "than".)
3. This film is interesting than the one we watched last time. (No)
This film is more interesting than the one we watched last time. (Yes)
(The comparative form is "more than", not just "than". The fact that there are irregular forms like "better" and "worse", which do not attract "more", does not mean "more" should be avoided in comparison.)
Did You Know? Esperanto is an artificial language but it is spoken by about 500,000 to 2,000,000 people. At least, two feature films have been done in the language.
1. Serious students attend their lectures at all cost. (No)
Serious students attend their lectures at all costs. (Yes)
Serious students attend their lectures at any cost. (Yes)
(The meaning of the idiom, "at all costs", means "no matter what the cost may be to you". The meaning is similar to "at any cost", which does not require any "s".)
2. My handset is more superior than yours. (No)
My mobile phone/ cellphone is superior to yours. (Yes)
(There are three issues here. 1. A "handset" is part of the telephone that contains the transmitter and the receiver. It is always held when dialling a phone number. A mobile phone/ cellphone is a portable phone on cellular network technology that is used to make and receive calls. 2. "Superior" is already a comparative adjective and it does not require "more". 3. "Superior" attracts or collocates with "to", not "than".)
3. This film is interesting than the one we watched last time. (No)
This film is more interesting than the one we watched last time. (Yes)
(The comparative form is "more than", not just "than". The fact that there are irregular forms like "better" and "worse", which do not attract "more", does not mean "more" should be avoided in comparison.)
Did You Know? Esperanto is an artificial language but it is spoken by about 500,000 to 2,000,000 people. At least, two feature films have been done in the language.
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