BREAKING: Target Test Prep releases Brand New 2026 On Demand GMAT prep course

Redeem

Greater vs more

This topic has expert replies
Post new topic Locked
Previous Topic Next Topic
Master | Next Rank: 500 Posts
Posts: 116
Joined: Sat Sep 22, 2012 9:48 pm
Thanked: 3 times

Greater vs more

by neeti2711 » Sat Apr 15, 2017 11:39 pm
Even though the costs of paying baseball players amounts to a sum greater than one half of the overall cost of operating a Major League Baseball team last year, Major League Baseball franchise owners were still willing to pay increasingly higher salaries to top players.

(A) amounts to a sum greater
(B) amounts to a more
(C) amounted to more
(D) amounted to a greater sum
(E) amounted to greater

OA: C

Please explain the use of greater than and more than
Top
Source: — Sentence Correction |
User avatar
Master | Next Rank: 500 Posts
Posts: 228
Joined: Thu Apr 20, 2017 1:02 am
Location: Global
Thanked: 32 times
Followed by:3 members
GMAT Score:770

by elias.latour.apex » Tue May 02, 2017 4:25 am
Well, there's no hard and fast rule that I could give you to distinguish between the two. I have seen some websites that say use more with plural words and greater with singular ones, but that's not necessarily true. After all, we could easily say: John drinks more wine than I do (wine is singular, so why not use greater?).

Perhaps it may be clear if you consider these two sentences:

John has more friends than I do.
John has greater friends than I do.

What's the difference? In the first sentence, we are suggesting, for example, that I have 10 friends whereas John has 20. The second sentence, in contrast, suggests that the friends that John has are more impressive than mine. For example, maybe I am friends with Gary the Grocer while John is friends with the Queen of England. In that sense, certainly John has greater friends.

The word greater is often used on the GMAT with the words amount and number. We should not say, for example, that the number of people visiting the grand opening of store X was more than the number visiting the grand opening of store Y. One number cannot be more than another number. It can, however, be greater. 10,000 is a more impressive number than 5,000 so we can say that 10,000 is a greater number.

Similarly, we might say: The amount of money spent on gifts this year is expected to be greater than that spent last year.
Elias Latour
Verbal Specialist @ ApexGMAT
blog.apexgmat.com
+1 (646) 736-7622
Top
Post new topic Locked
• Page 1 of 1