Synonyms

[tangelatm]

Hi!
Could you please tell me which of the underlined verbs best fits in the following:
The French excel / surpass the Americans in politeness.
According to most dictionaries, to excel is intransitive, so it would naturally be inappropriate in the example above.Nevertheless, I found it in an old joke dating back in the 1920s.
Thank you so much for your time,
Angela

[Ouisch]

"Surpass" would be the correct verb in your example.


And a joke book is probably the only place you'd find "the French" and "politeness" used in the same sentence.