grammar 問題

Your sentence is a little awkward, but grammatically correct.

The issue is not the use of "superior to" instead of "better than". It is actually because of the comparison between "my English" and "before".

Let's say you change your sentence to:
"My English is superior to my English before this". It is still a little awkward, but obviously grammaretically correct.

Grammatically speaking, the situation is the same for the use of "better than". Instead of saying "My English (now) is better than my English before this", we are allowed to skip some of the words, and say "My English is better than before".

Therefore, if "My English is superior to my English before this" is grammatically correct, so is "My English is superior to before".

As 001 has pointed out, "superior to" can be used to compare quantity or quality of something, the command of the English language is indeed a quality of something.

There is nothing wrong with saying "My English is superior to that of my brother", or "My English is superior to his".

Therefore, I would say "my English is better than before" is better English, but "my English is superior to before" is grammatically correct, and conveys the same meaning.





2010-05-11 10:52:49 補充：
Hi jentotong:
With 23 opinions and counting, you must be overwhelmed !
You know you ought to be proud of yourself, to be the only one who thinks his/her English is better than before, whereas everybody else seems to think his/her English is better than everybody else's.

David 究竟想講乜﹖我一D都睇唔明。

2010-05-11 01:58:27 補充：
I am very fed up with 過客's attitude towards criticism to his answer. If he thought he was right, he should have put up a defense with well-reasoned explanation and not shouted out his opinion by typing in caps.

2010-05-11 01:58:46 補充：
When 過客 finally found out he was wrong, he should have at least kept quiet, if not apologized for his mistakes or thanked others for the enlightenment. Instead, he attempted to put up a fight by pointing out what he thought were mistakes by the other writer.

2010-05-11 01:59:18 補充：
Ironically, the attack 過客 made was invalid and his act only served to expose his mediocrity.

2010-05-11 08:10:50 補充：
David，

我現在的英文比以前好. <==你自己用英文咪表達錯左LOR.

人人都知樓主話現在的英文比以前好，好似得你唔知，你係咪唔識解 superior to﹖樓主話 superior to before，唔係 superior before。

2010-05-11 08:12:36 補充：
唔好教人用 superior than。

先說意思方面:

superior 的意思可解作本質上比較優秀.
例: English is superior to Chiese in the context of law.

如果你只想表達多記了些英文生字,多學會了一些英文文法,就不應該用這個字,這裡用better較好.

如果你想表達你的英文程度,經過了很大的轉變,突然開竅等等,本質上也變得更好,就可以用superior. 除了文法,文筆措詞等等各方面也變得更好.

建議:
my English now is better than before.
my English now is superior to my English before.

有回答者說language不能用superior來做比較,其實是OK的. 某一本字典的例句:
His English is superior to his French. 出處: http://eow.alc.co.jp/His+English+is+superior+to+his+French/UTF-8/

順便說一下:
過客說的: "I am not criticized your English level." 應該是"I am not criticizing your English level." (為什麼用被動式?)
ed_young @rogers.com 說的 "My English is superior to my English before this" 應該是"My English is superior to my English before" (before this明顯是Chinese English)

有回答者好像說最好不要用深的生字, 平常練習時,我是覺得"用多錯多",被糾正多才會有進步. 考試時不要用不肯定的深字就好.

2010-05-10 20:45:41 補充：
文法方面, superior to 後應該跟名詞或me,them等pronoun, 不能只跟形容詞,副詞等等. 所以不能只接before.

better than 和superior to的詞性不同.

my English is better than ever,也不能改成my English is superior to ever.

2010-05-10 23:18:02 補充：
To: 過客

I mean no disrespect, but I can guarantee that the sentence "I am not criticized your English level" is wrong. If you don't believe me, you are welcomed to ask a third opinion.

2010-05-10 23:18:37 補充：
The word "interested" in " I am not interested in watching football." is an adjective, and not a form of the verb "interest". The verb "interest" and the adjective "interested" are separate dictionary entries.

2010-05-10 23:18:49 補充：
Whereas adjective "criticized" does not exist. So, it must be a form of the verb "criticize", and "I am not criticized..." can only be 被動式.

2010-05-10 23:18:59 補充：
Before accusing other people, please be sure that you know your own basic sentence structure.

Thank you.

2010-05-11 00:24:12 補充：
"you are welcome" is used to reply to "thank you"
"you are welcomed" is used to invite someone to do somthing. It is actually 被動式.

And there is nothing wrong with "if you don't believe me" and "I mean no disrespect"

2010-05-11 00:36:34 補充：
welcome can be a verb or an adjective, please look it up in a dictionary, if you are unsure.

2010-05-11 00:36:43 補充：
Making a mistake is nothing to be embarrassed about. Everybody does, including me. Plese don't embarrass yourself further by defending your mistakes. If someone can point out that my grammer is wrong, I won't defend my mistakes, I will only be grateful.

2010-05-11 03:01:57 補充：
By the way, third opinion<<是很常見的慣用語。

2010-05-11 14:11:57 補充：
I am sorry myself to have caused any ill feeling around this question. Only wanted to discuss English, not to offend anyone. Sorry.

my english is superior to before , 有冇grammar錯?

好多香港人都誤解了英文...以為用一D好似深既生字就即係代表識英文. 咁樣係錯的.
入正題.

你想講你之前英文係好好的. <===點為之好好呢? 不如你話你依家D英文退步仲比較好.

你依家呢句一定唔用得SUPERIOR~ 言語唔可以用SUPERIOR黎做比較. 只可以用GOOD, EXCELLENT, and (會話黎講) FLUENT. 用英文唔可以單只靠文法啱就可以. 用字方面都要留意. 唔係深既字就代表英文叻. 大錯特錯.

2010-05-10 13:35:38 補充：
我係想講 , 我現在的英文比以前好. <==你自己用英文咪表達錯左LOR.
你用BEFORE人地會知你係指之前~ 放扯BEFORE後面唔係用TO, 係用THAN啦~你依家係作緊比較麻~~

你想講比以前好既應係:

My english is better then before. <=== 我的英文比之前/以前好了很多.
My english has improved alot. <===我的英文進步了很多.

#3 人兄串得我好應 , 不過又冇講錯既 <==我唔係串你架~ 我都係講事實. 我都有同人補習架. 呢個係頻頻發生既問題~

I am so sorry but I don't really understand your expression. My guesses are as follows :

1. My English is much better than before

2. My English is better than before

Two comparison statements no.1 is stronger than no.2

3. My English was excellent before

Do NOT use superior in your sentence.


2010-05-10 14:55:28 補充：
Two spelling mistakes have been found from 003 David

My english is better then (THAN not/not then)before. <=== 我的英文比之前/以前好了很多.
My english has improved alot ( a lot not/not alot). <===我的英文進步了很多.

Sorry, I am not criticized your English level.

2010-05-10 22:57:50 補充：
To: ももがおいしいわ ( 中學級 1 級 )

What a bloody hell..... who's telling you "I am not criticized your English level" 是被動式O.K what about if I say " I am not interested in watching football. Is this 被動式 again ??? PLEASE DO NOT CRITICIZE SOMEONE'S ENGLISH LEVEL IF YOU ARE NOT SURE THE BASIC SENTENCE STRUCTURE.

2010-05-11 11:10:31 補充：
Sorry ! I apologized to all who have participated this question. I must admit I am wrong. Tks to all who have enlightened me including ももがおいしいわ ( 大學級 5 級 ) , matsucheng ( 小學級 3 級 ) and garlic2010 ( 博士級 4 級 ).

You can say "my English is better than before".

It is quite strange to use "...is superior to..." to describe the difference of one's English level. Normally, "superior to" refers to a comparison on quality or quantity of something, or comparison on one's social status.

2010-05-11 00:15:48 補充：
(reply 1)

Calm down please......

Both "interested" and "welcome" (no suffix "-ed") are adjectives. Neither of them has passive voice.

2010-05-11 00:16:50 補充：
(reply 2)

However, I'm sorry to say that, "criticize" is a verb. This is undoubtedly true.
Grammatically, "I am not criticized" in 過客's sentence (a pattern of "be" plus a verb in past tense) has an identity of passive voice already.

2010-05-11 00:17:24 補充：
(reply 3)

Perhaps 過客 wants to emphasize the particular time he made the critique, if so, you should use past continuous tense (i.e., I was not criticizing.....) instead of passive voice.

2010-05-11 00:18:28 補充：
(reply 4)

My opinion maybe wrong, or even if you can find out any grammatical mistakes in other sentences, please let me know. Don't be so angry. You are a buddhist, right? Be generous.

2010-05-11 09:58:49 補充：
To: ももがおいしいわ

Sorry I've made a mistake too. You are correct. "Welcome" can also be a verb as well as adjective. But I'm wondering if "welcome" (verb) is a word derived from its adjective form, or vice versa.....I'm not sure