[naomimalan]

Originally Posted by banderas

Hi Naomimalan,
What I thought is that dictionaries are not always reliable. If they say "any longer"="any more", it is weird to me. These two structures exist not for nothing so there must be a slight difference in use. I do not remember if it was RonBee or BobK (perhaps both of them) who said that we do need the context in order to figure out a meaning of English words. Anglika also asks for context when answering some posts. In general, I agree that "any longer" and "any more" are interchangable.

“What I thought is that dictionaries are not always reliable. If they say "any longer"="any more", it is weird to me.
I once heard that lexicologists have an extremely limited amount of time to define a word and find examples. Maybe that explains why their definitions are not always reliable. But I think it could also be that certain structures haven’t yet been researched – or else have been researched but incorrectly.
“ I do not remember if it was RonBee or BobK (perhaps both of them) who said that we do need the context in order to figure out a meaning of English words. Anglika also asks for context when answering some posts.”
Yes, context can be very important. Your para 2 higher up (about not waiting for a friend) illustrates this.
“. These two structures exist not for nothing so there must be a slight difference in use….. In general, I agree that "any longer" and "any more" are interchangable.”
I think what we said higher up does prove that for the most part these structures are interchangeable but not systematically.