Deleting the verb phrase containing the verb "be" in correlative comparatives

Hi, Meriem,

@Meriem posted:

Would my sentence still be natural after deleting the verb "be" ?

(1) The fewer customers there are, the earlier the bar will close.

(2) The more I concentrate, the more accurate my answers are.

(3) The more admired a person is, the vainer he or she becomes.

(4) The more optimistic your boss is, the more productive you will be.

Paraphrased sentence:
(A) The fewer the customers, the earlier the bar will close.

(B) The more I concentrate, the more accurate my answers.

(C) The more admired a person, the vainer he or she becomes.

(D) The more optimistic your boss, the more productive you will be.

I think (A) works better than (1). Actually, I don't think (1) works at all.

(B), (C) and (D) do not work.

Hello,

Thank you for your answer, Mr Gustavo. But I am still wondering and confused why we can’t omit the verb “Be”? especially after seeing your comment on a related topic:

“I think this might be a good rule to detect faulty comparative correlatives: if the comparative construction is an object or an adjunct, what follows the comparative construction needs to be the subject and the verb phrase; if the comparative construction is a predicative, what follows the comparative construction needs to be the subject (in which case the copula is usually omitted). In both cases, the sentences must be correct without adding any extra word (except the copula) if we restore the normal word order.”

https://thegrammarexchange.inf...1#700093648147118551

There must be certainly a slight difference that I can’t figure out.

It can be clearly noticed that the examples proposed by me do not follow this structure:

STRUCTURE (1) : the more + adjective + “THE” + noun

Instead of “THE” I have other pronouns like the indefinite pronoun “a” or the possessive pronouns “my, your”. I don’t know if this could be a clue toward the answer.

Thank you for explaining the reason why we can’t omit the verb “be” in my case.

@Meriem posted:

“I think this might be a good rule to detect faulty comparative correlatives: if the comparative construction is an object or an adjunct, what follows the comparative construction needs to be the subject and the verb phrase; if the comparative construction is a predicative, what follows the comparative construction needs to be the subject (in which case the copula is usually omitted). In both cases, the sentences must be correct without adding any extra word (except the copula) if we restore the normal word order.”

https://thegrammarexchange.inf...1#700093648147118551

[...]

Thank you for explaining the reason why we can’t omit the verb “be” in my case.

I think omitting "be" sometimes leads to an unbalanced result which the site you quoted refers to as a potential source of error. See Common Mistakes - Focus and Solutions at the end of that page.

Yes true, sometimes it feels a bit odd to the ear. Thank you again.