Deleting the verb phrase after "the more/less + adjective" in double comparatives.

@Meriem posted:

Does the following sentence still understood  if I delete "he is" in the following sentence?

Hi, Meriem—Your question suffers from two major grammatical errors, as well as a tense error and an error of redundancy.

First, when you ask a question in English and use "do"-support, the main verb should be in its base form ("understand," not "understood").

Second, sentences don't understand things. People understand sentences. You need to use the passive voice ("be understood").

Third, you should use "Will the following sentence be understood" because the processing time is in the future relative to the time of composition.

Fourth, since you have used the phrase "the following sentence" as the subject, you should not redundantly say "in the following sentence" at the end.

• Will the following sentence be understood if I delete "he is"?

The answer is that the result of deleting "he is" will be an ungrammatical sentence, whether or not anyone grasps your intended meaning.

Meriem may have seen sentences like "The quicker I get you away from here, the better" and thus wonders when the subject-copula sequence can be omitted after the comparative.

@raymondaliasapollyon posted:

Meriem may have seen sentences like "The quicker I get you away from here, the better" and thus wonders when the subject-copula sequence can be omitted after the comparative.

Yes, the truncated version of the correlative comparative works in formulaic cases such as "The bigger, the better"; "The older, the wiser"—in which both sides of the construction are truncated—and this can be extended a bit with "the better," so that only the second half is truncated. However, Meriem's "The richer he gets, the more satisfied" does not work, in my opinion, even if it is not totally ungrammatical, and I do not think anyone whose English is as weak as Meriem's should attempt to truncate correlative comparatives willy-nilly. It takes an ear to do that; one needs to be able to speak English.

Thank you, David. In non-formulaic correlative comparative constructions, is the omitted subject of the second, truncated clause always an expletive referring to the general situation?

Hello David and Raymon,

@David, Moderator posted:

Fourth, since you have used the phrase "the following sentence" as the subject, you should not redundantly say "in the following sentence" at the end.

For "the following sentence" it was an unconscious mistake. Thank you for all your corrections David!

@raymondaliasapollyon posted:

Meriem may have seen sentences like "The quicker I get you away from here, the better" and thus wonders when the subject-copula sequence can be omitted after the comparative.

Yes exactly Ramon, it was after seeing this example "The sooner, the better".

Thank you everybody, that was helpful.