The adverbial of comparison

§ 109. This adverbial is introduced by the conjunctions than, as, as if, as though or the preposition like. The adverbial with than is preceded by the comparative of the adverb or the adjective it modifies, the adverbial with as - by the correlative adverbs asor so:

A mountain ishigher than a hill.

The boy is nowas tall as his father.

Tom is notso tall as his brother.

Tom speaks French as fluently as a born Frenchman.

Tom speaks French like a Frenchman.

The difference between the use of like and as is important.

Ann talked to us like a teacher means that Ann is not a teacher, whereas the sentence Ann talked to us as a teacher implies that she is a teacher and in talking to us her professional manner was apparent.

The conjunctions as if and as though give the comparison a modal shade of meaning: They precede a participle, an infinitive, or a prepositional phrase, as in:

As if obeying him, I turned and stared into his face.

He prospered greatly, almost as though against his will.

The adverbial of degree

§ 110. This adverbial modifies various parts of the sentence expressed by verbs, adjectives, adverbs and statives, characterizing actions, states and quality from the viewpoint of their intensity. The identifying questions being how much? to what extent?

Adverbials of degree are expressed mainly by adverbs and by prepositional phrases with the preposition to.

The story is extremely long.

All was planned to the split second.

Now you may read to your hearts content.

Sometimes nouns can be modified by an adverbial of degree, as in:

You are quite a man, my boy.

The adverbial of measure

§ 111. This adverbial is expressed by a noun denoting a unit of measure (length, time, weight, money, temperature).

It is used after statal verbs denoting processes, states, or characteristics allowing measurement, such as to measure, to last, to wait, to sleep, to walk, to run, to weigh, to cost. Nouns as adverbials of measure are preceded by numerals or the indefinite article in its, numerical function.

The room measures 30 feet across.

We walked (for) five miles.

The box weighs a ton.

The temperature went down ten degrees below zero.

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