An omission

English grammar questions, answered by Alan

Moderator: Alan

Post Reply
pdh0224
Rising Star
Rising Star
Posts: 472
Joined: Sun Feb 22, 2004 5:02 am

An omission

Post by pdh0224 »

Dear teacher,

This is head-injury time for school athletes. With football, soccer, hockey and basketball, more players than not are likely to fall or be hit on the head, and many will be hit hard enough to get concussions.

Q 1: I think "players" are omitted between "than" and "not are..."

Q2 : I believe "many" is same people of "more players". Why was a same thing twice?



What do you think?


All the best,
User avatar
Alan
Teacher/Moderator
Teacher/Moderator
Posts: 15193
Joined: Mon Dec 29, 2003 7:56 pm
Status: Teacher of English
Location: Japan

Post by Alan »

1. The construction is a highly elliptical rearrangement of

more players are likely to fall or be hit on the head than THE NUMBER OF PLAYERS WHO ARE not LIKELY TO FALL OR BE HIT ON THE HEAD.

In other words, the number of players who will be involved in these accidents exceeds 50% of the total.

2. I don't really understand your question: 'many' here means simply 'many of those players', i.e. specifying the very serious consequences of a great number of these accidents.
Post Reply