Than

David writes:
I am confused with these sentences with "than":

The Eastern Pacific is cooler than usual, and the cool water extends farther westward than is usual.

When the growing season in such areas is warmer than usual , the fruit produced is riper and better balanced than is usual in cool seasons.

Does your child need or use more medical care, mental health, or educational services than is usual for most children of the same age?

If more cloud cover occurs than is expected during the daylight, the surface temperature will generally be cooler than expected.

'I'm having more fun than is legal,' says Friend of Bush

It had more than fifty times the amount of bacteria than is expected in prepared foods.

I think I understand the meaning of the above sentences, but I just cannot figure out why sometimes it is "than", sometimes it is "than is". Could you please explain and tell me when to use "than is" or "than" in writing?

"Than" is a conjunction, like "and" and "but," and we use it to compare one thing with another: I am taller than my wife.

I could have said "than my wife is," but the verb is understood. So I don't need to include it. The same is true, I think, in most of the sentences you offer. For example, you could write, "The Eastern Pacific is cooler than is usual, and the cool water extends farther westward than is usual." But a repeated "is" would sound awkward, and would draw attention to itself. So we can drop one verb.

In other cases, we say more than we need to with this usage: "Does your child need or use more medical care, mental health, or educational services than is usual for most children of the same age?" I would simply drop "is usual" and write "than most children."

Sometimes we can really confuse the reader: "I like computers more than my wife." Oh dear! I could get in big trouble saying that. What I mean to say is, "I like computers more than my wife does."

David goes on to ask another question:
I am sorry, maybe my question is too long, but another sentence with "than" also confuses me:
For a Hindu woman nothing is more important than possessing a husband and nothing is luckier than to have a loving and caring husband.

Q: than + "v.+ing" or than + "to do"?

Now we're talking about "parallelism"—using the same parts of speech. In this example I would say either:

"...nothing is more important than possessing a husband, and nothing is luckier than having a loving and caring husband."

OR:

"...nothing is more important than to possess a husband, and nothing is luckier than to have a loving and caring husband."

So we need two gerunds ("ing" verbs acting as nouns), or two infinitives ("to" + verbs). Notice that I've also added a comma. You have two fairly long independent clauses joined with "and." Unless the first clause is very short, we link two independent clause with a comma before the conjunction (and, but, so).

Meanwhile, Frédéric in New Zealand asks:
What form should you use after rather than: the infinitive or the gerund?
Which one would be the most frequent/natural form?

This again is a problem in parallel structure:
"I prefer skydiving rather than skindiving" is perfectly OK with two gerunds.
"I prefer to skydive rather than to skindive" is also OK with two infinitives.

So use either form, but use it consistently in any given sentence.

Comments

[David]

Thank you very much for your explanation!

[LanceHo]

Hi Crawford,
I am a student in Taiwan, and I read this article by chance. 'than usual' or 'than is usual' has confused me for a long time.
In this article, it seems that ‘than usual’ and ‘than is usual’ have the same meaning.
However, they are not the same in the following question.

The Parthenon is larger than ____ for a Doric temple, with eight columns on the short sides and seventeen on the long ones rather than the typical six and thirteen.
A) usual
B) is usual
C) has been usual
D)one usually is
E) it is usual
The correct answer is B. Can you explain why A and E are not correct ?

Thank you very much.

Lance Ho.

[LanceHo]

Hi Crawford,
Thanks for your answer.

I got two more examples.
The indoor swimming pool seems to be a great deal more luxious than is necessary.
He got more money than was wanted.

If they turn into the following setences by erasing ‘is’ and ‘was’, are they still correct ?

The indoor swimming pool seems to be a great deal more luxious than necessary.
He got more money than wanted.

Thanks very much.
Lance Ho.