[Grammar] misplaced article

[josiewales]

Hello, I'm looking for some help with a sentence submitted by a student in their English exam today. My instinct tells me that I am correct that there is an error there but I'm struggling to give them a concrete grammatical reason why the following is wrong:

"The UK spent 58 billion dollars which was more than the half of the amount spent by the USA.

I told the student that the 'the' in bold was not necessary as the context does not point to a specific half. It has become more confusing the more I look at it.

I appreciate the help!

josie

 

[Raymott]

"More than half" or "more than a half" are correct. 'The' is wrong for the reason you've given.

It's a strange sentence. "More than double" or "less than half" are common, meaningful phrases. But if the UK spent more than half that spent by the US, it could also have spent more than ten times the US amount. There might be some ungiven context, though, that makes this a sensible sentence.

 

[Charlie Bernstein]

Hello, I'm looking for some help with a sentence submitted by a student in an English exam today. My instinct tells me that I am correct that there is an error there but, I'm struggling to give the student a concrete grammatical reason for why the following is wrong:

"The UK spent 58 billion dollars, which was more than the half of the amount spent by the USA.

I told the student that the 'the' in bold was not necessary, as the context does not point to a specific half. It has become more confusing the more I look at it.

I appreciate the help!

Josie

Your answer was exactly right and very clear and adequate. Your student just needs to learn to live with it.

Raymott is right. It's a weird sentence.

 

[GoesStation]

I don't find it weird. Journalists commonly report approximate numbers by comparing them with other numbers. X is more than half of Y means "approximately half of Y but somewhat more" in journalistic English. The phrasing is imprecise but not unusual in journalism.

 

[josiewales]

"More than half" or "more than a half" are correct. 'The' is wrong for the reason you've given.

It's a strange sentence. "More than double" or "less than half" are common, meaningful phrases. But if the UK spent more than half that spent by the US, it could also have spent more than ten times the US amount. There might be some ungiven context, though, that makes this a sensible sentence.

Thanks for your feedback! Sometimes the more you look at something, the less clear it becomes. I'll have to look at the full paragraph tomorrow but I guess unless there is some earlier reference to a specific half, I'll leave it at that.
Thanks again.

 

[josiewales]

I don't find it weird. Journalists commonly report approximate numbers by comparing them with other numbers. X is more than half of Y means "approximately half of Y but somewhat more" in journalistic English. The phrasing is imprecise but not unusual in journalism.

Thanks for your input, I understand what you mean but my main gripe with the sentence was the article before the word half "...was more than the half of the amount spent by the USA."

 

[Tdol]

Sometimes the more you look at something, the less clear it becomes.

And if you see an error often enough, it can start to look right.

 

[Charlie Bernstein]

I don't find it weird. Journalists commonly report approximate numbers by comparing them with other numbers. X is more than half of Y means "approximately half of Y but somewhat more" in journalistic English. The phrasing is imprecise but not unusual in journalism.

It wasn't the imprecision that caught me, and the student's writing isn't bad at all. It just seemed a little round-about. It was hard to tell whether the point was how much the UK spent compared to the US or how little.

If we'd seen the whole paper, that would probably be clear.