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 Post subject: Re: More doctors than any other cigarette
PostPosted: 2010. November 24, Wednesday, 9:54 
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vad wrote:
Grammar nazi wrote:
More people buy this brand than they buy the other brand. This would be correct if you said "More people buy this brand more often than* they buy any other brand"


I think here, after THAN a noun, or a verbal noun is more common:

"More people buy this brand than buying the other".

or

"More people buy this brand more often than buying any other brand"

It is like in "prefer doing (this) than doing (that)"

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 Post subject: Re: More doctors than any other cigarette
PostPosted: 2010. November 24, Wednesday, 0:18 
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vad wrote:
People write like:
more people buy a Liberty for their home safes, fire safes and gun safes than any other brand
More people buy Viagra online than any other drug-00-811
More people buy domain names from Godaddy than any other domain registration company
More children suffer neglect than any other form of maltreatment.
More children suffer from dental caries than any other chronic childhood disease
...
These are all bad. :D Or the NPI people are in deep sh@t.


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 Post subject: Re: More doctors than any other cigarette
PostPosted: 2010. November 24, Wednesday, 0:02 
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Posts: 516
Grammar nazi wrote:
More people buy this brand than they buy the other brand. This would be correct if you said "More people buy this brand more often than they buy any other brand"


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 Post subject: Re: More doctors than any other cigarette
PostPosted: 2010. November 23, Tuesday, 23:53 
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Posts: 516
kalman wrote:
Any would only be licensed in the head of the phrase following than.

Sorry, I can't see why :oops:
People write like:
more people buy a Liberty for their home safes, fire safes and gun safes than any other brand
More people buy Viagra online than any other drug-00-811
More people buy domain names from Godaddy than any other domain registration company
More children suffer neglect than any other form of maltreatment.
More children suffer from dental caries than any other chronic childhood disease
...


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 Post subject: Re: More doctors than any other cigarette
PostPosted: 2010. November 23, Tuesday, 23:48 
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Posts: 1152
Location: Hódmezővásárhely
Quote:
[There are] more doctors [who] smoke Camels than [doctors who smoke] any other cigarette.


.. that was my other idea... :wink:

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 Post subject: Re: More doctors than any other cigarette
PostPosted: 2010. November 23, Tuesday, 23:41 
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Posts: 2548
vad wrote:
Maybe, I don't understand the problem. More people buy hot dogs than filet mignon is perfect (at least very common), isn't it? What is the difference?
It's probably any. A phrase like more elephants than any other animal is fine, but in the original examples, more is the determiner of doctors (or people, whatever), which has nothing to do with the head of the any-phrase (other cigarette, other news channel, whatever). For example,
Quote:
More doctors smoke Camels than any other cigarette
can be seen an abbreviation of
Quote:
[There are] more doctors [who] smoke Camels than [doctors who smoke] any other cigarette.
Any would only be licensed in the head of the phrase following than.


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 Post subject: Re: More doctors than any other cigarette
PostPosted: 2010. November 23, Tuesday, 23:35 
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Quote:
More people buy hot dogs than filet mignon


In passive may be:

"More hot dogs than filet mignon are bought (by people)."


The oroginal in a (maybe) more correct structure:

"People buy more hot dogs than filet mignon."

Or:

"More people buy hot dogs rather than filet mignon"

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 Post subject: Re: More doctors than any other cigarette
PostPosted: 2010. November 23, Tuesday, 23:32 
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Posts: 516
vad wrote:
In Hungarian, the sentence több orvos szí Camelt mint bármi más cigarettát is really good and its meaning is different from az orvosok több Camelt színak mint bármi másik cigarettát

I mean can be different


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 Post subject: Re: More doctors than any other cigarette
PostPosted: 2010. November 23, Tuesday, 23:20 
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Posts: 516
Maybe, I don't understand the problem. More people buy hot dogs than filet mignon is perfect (at least very common), isn't it? What is the difference?


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 Post subject: Re: More doctors than any other cigarette
PostPosted: 2010. November 23, Tuesday, 23:08 
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kalman wrote:
But I don't really see vad's point.

I'm not a native speaker of English so I can't judge that
kalman wrote:
the original sentence is really bad.

In Hungarian, the sentence több orvos szí Camelt mint bármi más cigarettát is really good and its meaning is different from az orvosok több Camelt színak mint bármi másik cigarettát. The first one is about the choice of the brand and the latter one is about the smoking act.


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 Post subject: Re: More doctors than any other cigarette
PostPosted: 2010. November 23, Tuesday, 22:55 
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Brain Storming wrote:
What do you think?

I agree that your version is what I really had in mind:
Brain Storming wrote:
Doctors smoke Camels more (and here its meaning is 'rather') than any other cigarette
And I agree that the point must be that you start thinking about Camels, because the original sentence is really bad.
But I don't really see vad's point.


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 Post subject: Re: More doctors than any other cigarette
PostPosted: 2010. November 23, Tuesday, 22:50 
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I think this is a tricky example of an originally passive expression that seems to be strange in active.

I think the original sentence must have been like this: "Camels are smoked more than any other cigarettes by doctors."

I think what you write in the sentence:
"Doctors smoke more Camels than any other cigarette" underlines the quantity, but here the brand may be more important - the main thing is that more doctors smoke Camels, but it doesn't mean that they smoke more cigarettes of Camels, than of other brands.

Your sentence may be "better" this way:"Doctors smoke Camels more (and here its meaning is 'rather') than any other cigarette".

... and I think this is the trick: "more than" - "rather than"

The conclusion:

"Doctors smoke more Camels than any other cigarette"

See in this form:

"Doctors smoke Camels rather than any other cigarette"

This way it is a very good slogen - it makes you think... if you happen to be a smoker, maybe you'll think of Camels more... or rather than any other cigarettes... :wink: :wink: :wink: :wink:


What do you think?

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 Post subject: Re: More doctors than any other cigarette
PostPosted: 2010. November 23, Tuesday, 22:47 
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Posts: 516
kalman wrote:
Actually, Doctors smoke more Camels than any other cigarette would come closer to the original intention of the ads.

I think it wouldn't. Doctors smoke more Camels than any other cigarette means something along the lines with whenever a doctor smokes a cigarette it is more probable that it is a Camel than it is x, where x is another cigarette brand while the original ad intends to mean that whenever a doctor buys a pack of cigarette it is more probable that it is a Camel than it is x, where x is another cigarette brand
He smokes Camel but he smokes more Marlboro than any other cigarette, because he is always out of his own and his wife smokes Marlboro.


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 Post subject: Re: More doctors than any other cigarette
PostPosted: 2010. November 23, Tuesday, 21:55 
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szigetva wrote:
you'd expect something like "more doctors smoke Camels than nurses'', wouldn't you?
Actually, Doctors smoke more Camels than any other cigarette would come closer to the original intention of the ads. But the way it stands sounds just absurd to me. (If this is one of those ad tricks that make you remember the text, then it's ingenious. I guess I'm loving it is also one of those.)


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 Post subject: Re: More doctors than any other cigarette
PostPosted: 2010. November 23, Tuesday, 21:47 
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Joined: 2004. November 10, Wednesday, 18:20
Posts: 2183
It took me some time to figure out what you find strange: you'd expect something like "more doctors smoke Camels than nurses'', wouldn't you? I'm okay with the original too (but then I'm not a native speaker either.)


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