the x a

**beachboy** · 10-Oct-2011, 17:39

This meal is _______ better one than the last I had here.
Which one is right? The or a?

**birdeen's call** · 10-Oct-2011, 17:43

"A".

**Barb_D** · 10-Oct-2011, 17:45

Originally Posted by beachboy

This meal is _______ better one than the last I had here.
Which one is right? The or a?

This meal is better than the one I had the last time I ate hear.
This meal is better than the last one I had here.

**beachboy** · 10-Oct-2011, 18:16

This is an exercise from a book. The right answer in the book is A, but I'm trying to find an explanation for this, as I've googled the phrase "the better one than" and I got many hits.

**Barb_D** · 10-Oct-2011, 19:21

Well, to be honest, it's the second half of the sentence that sounds awkward to me.

Compare these similar sentence:

My daughter's current school is a better school than her last one.
My daughter's school is a better one than the last one she attended.
This school is a better one then the last she attended.

This meal is _______ better one than the last I had here.

**5jj** · 10-Oct-2011, 19:38

Originally Posted by beachboy

This is an exercise from a book. The right answer in the book is A, but I'm trying to find an explanation for this, as I've googled the phrase "the better one than" and I got many hits.

Google is not a good place to check on language usage. many of the hits will be things writen by non-native and/or uneducated people. Answer A is not correct in standard English.

pssst Barbara. I can spot your sneaky attempts to snatch my 'typo-champion' title (the last word of the first sentence in your first pos)t. you cant baet me mo mater hwo hard yuou try.

**birdeen's call** · 10-Oct-2011, 22:39

Originally Posted by fivejedjon

Google is not a good place to check on language usage. many of the hits will be things writen by non-native and/or uneducated people. Answer A is not correct in standard English.

Why is "a" incorrect? I think "the" would be completely out of place in this sentence... I agree it's not correct even with the "a" --- I didn't notice that there was no "one" after "last". Isn't the sentence OK with "a" if we add "one" though?

This meal is a better one than the last one I had here.

If it's not grammatical, then something is seriously wrong with my judgement.

**Barb_D** · 10-Oct-2011, 23:16

I will leave my hear/here typo to remind learners that even natives make mistakes. Sigh.

I think the sentence is awkward, but grammatical.

**5jj** · 11-Oct-2011, 06:28

The meal is better..

.....T hThis meal is better one. X on .. e. ...This meal is better one than that (one). X
This meal is the better.

.....This meal is the better one.

......This meal is the better one than... X
This meal is a better.X.......... .This meal is a better one.

........This meal is a better one than ...

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