2.162 Indicating the degree of difference: submodifiers in comparison

When you are using comparative adjectives, you may want to say that something has much more or less of a quality than something else. You can do this by adding a submodifier.

• He is a much better dentist than you.
• These creatures are much less mobile.
• There are far worse dangers.
• Some children are a lot more difficult than others.

You can also use a submodifier to say that something has much more or much less of a quality than it had before.

• He had become much more mature.
• That's much less important than it was.

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Some submodifiers can only be used when comparative adjectives are being used as complements.

• We'll be getting up a lot higher than this.
• It would be a good deal easier if you came to my place.
• The journey back was a great deal more unpleasant than the outward one had been.

Here is a list of submodifiers used in front of comparative adjectives:

• a good deal, a great deal, a lot, heaps, lots

Note that 'lots' and 'heaps' are only used in informal spoken English.

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However, other submodifiers can be used with comparative adjectives which are being used as either modifiers or complements.

• They are faced with a much harder problem than the rest of us.
• Scientific activity is now much greater.
• Computers can be applied to a far wider range of tasks.
• The process is far simpler than multiplication.

Here is a list of submodifiers used with adjectives that are used both attributively and predicatively:

• considerably, far, infinitely, much, vastly, very much