one question

[peppy_man]

'The main advantage of using a car is that it allows us to go to somewhere within a shorter period of time than walking to there.
To put it another way, it takes us less time to go to there.'

Is there any problem in the above example?
I'm not sure whether or not it is correct.
Thank you.

[Casiopea]

'to' is not required:

The main advantage of using a car is that it allows us to go to somewhere in a shorter period of time than it would take us to walk to there. To put it another way, it takes us less time to get to there.'

Try,

I'm not sure whether it is correct or not (correct).

[peppy_man]

Casiopea, thank you for your correction.

By the way, I wrote another sentence which follows the last one.
Below is the sentence.

'Also cars can carry heavier loads, which is helpful for physically weaker people such as elderly people and women.'

Again, I'm not sure whether it is correct or not.
Particularly 'physically weaker people' might be wrong...
I guess 'unmuscular' is better.
Thank you.

[Casiopea]

'physically weaker people' sounds kind of comparative. Try, people who are not physically strong. Hmm. It may be too general of a statement, though. Consider, are all senior citizens and women weak?

[Robert B. Mercer]

Cassiopeia, I had a question for you... I am not very well enmeshed in the ESL world, and am trying to learn from established teachers like yourself... so, when I see a correction that I hadn't thought of, I try to figure it out and get it into my own head... is 'comparative' language something to be discouraged?

"Cars are super-duper for older, weaker farmers who can't lift as much."
Should that be revised?

[peppy_man]

Thank you for your reply.

'Are all senior citizens and women weak?'

I don't think so. It differs from person to person.
I'm sorry if I offended someone, though, of course, I did not mean to do so.
It is due to my poor command of English.
My English teacher always tells me to give some examples to support the point in a topic sentence when writing an essay, so when I write an essay I always try to toss up at least one example which supports the point in a topic sentence.
However, the example I gave in the last post was not appropriate.

The sentence should have been written this way.

'Cars can carry heavier loads, which is helpful when we travel with a heavy luggage, for example when we go fishing or skiing.'

[Casiopea]

You're welcome.

Originally Posted by peppy_man

. . . , the example I gave in the last post was not appropriate. The sentence should have been written this way.

'Cars can carry heavier loads, which is helpful when we travel with a heavy luggage, for example when we go fishing or skiing.'

Excellent sentence. "we" refers to every reader. That's good.

[Casiopea]

Hi.

"weaker" is a comparative adjective, but -er isn't the problem per se, because omitting it still results in the same semantics. It's the omitted comparative variable, weaker (than who) and the semantics that result that's a problem.

Word usage is somewhat questionable, as well. Using the phrase physically weak to describe seniors and women borders on the agism and sexism side of things. That is, consider, is it true that all seniors and all women are physically weaker than _____ and _____? Since the writer has failed to state the other variables in the comparision, the reader is left to assume the closest semantic association:

seniors and non-seniors
women and men

Result: all non-senior males are physically strong.

Hmm. I believe that's not what our poster was trying to express with 'Also cars can carry heavier loads, which is helpful for physically weaker people such as elderly people and women.'

"physically weaker (than)" is just a tad too comparative for what the poster was actually trying to express.

All the best,