2.129 indicating that things have the same quality

If you want to say that a thing or person has as much of a quality as something or someone else, you can use a structure based on the word 'as' in front of a qualitative adjective. Usually this adjective is then followed by a qualifying phrase or clause which also begins with 'as'.

The qualifying phrase can be

* a prepositional phrase beginning with the preposition 'as'

• You're just as bad as your sister.
• ...huge ponds as big as tennis courts.
• Takings were as high as ever.

* a clause introduced by the conjunction 'as'

• Conversation was not as slow as I feared it would be.
• The village gardens aren't as good as they used to be.

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When this comparative structure is followed by a prepositional phrase consisting of 'as' and a pronoun on its own, the pronoun must be an appropriate object pronoun such as 'me', 'him', or 'her'. However, when the comparative structure is followed by a clause consisting of the conjunction 'as' and a pronoun which is the subject of a clause, then that pronoun must be an appropriate subject pronoun such as 'I', 'he' or 'her'.

• Jane was not as clever as him.
• They aren't as clever as they appear to be.

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If it is clear what you are comparing something or someone to, you can omit the qualifying phrase or clause.

• A megaphone would be as good.

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You can also use the 'as... as ...' structure to say that something has much more or less of a quality than something else. You do this by putting an expression such as 'twice', 'three times', 'ten times', or 'half' in front of the first 'as'. For example, if one building is ten metres high and another building is twenty metres high, you can say that the second building is 'twice as high as' the first building or that the first building is 'half as high as' the second one.

• The grass was twice as tall as in the rest of the field.
• Water is eight hundred times as dense as air.

This structure is often used in the same way to refer to qualities that cannot be measured. For example, if you want to say that something is much more useful than something else, you can say that the first thing is 'a hundred times as useful as' the second one.

• Without this rearing our children would be ten times as hard as it is.