meaning of sentences

They mean the same to me.

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I agree with you, TTH, but another native speaker says they do not have the same meaning.

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What reason does your native speaker give?

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Mame wrote:

What reason does your native speaker give?

She gave a very detailed explanation and I'm none the wiser after reading it.

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Can you post it here and we can try to make sense of it for you?

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Mame wrote:

Can you post it here and we can try to make sense of it for you?

Hi Mame
As requested, the following is the explanation. I find it very wordy and confusing. If you could put her explanation in a simpler way, maybe I can understand better.

No, they don't have the same meaning.

Say country A uses 10 of something, and countries B and C each use 6, and countries D, E, and F each use 3.

In no other country is more used than in Country A. This would be true.

However, of the total of 31, country A uses 10. That's not "most," so "The most is used in country A" is not correct.

It MAY be that country A uses 50 of something, so the first sentence could be true, but as a matter of logic, the two sentences to not have the same meaning.

Find that post about Japan having more magazines than any other country - that doesn't mean that most of the magazine in the world are in Japan.

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Ah, she's saying that sentence A did not specify the most oil compared to whoever else whereas the second sentence very clearly states that the USA uses more oil than any other country.

However, I disagree with her because it's implicit in the first sentence that it is countries being discussed.

Is this a little clearer for you?

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Mame wrote:

Ah, she's saying that sentence A did not specify the most oil compared to whoever else whereas the second sentence very clearly states that the USA uses more oil than any other country.

However, I disagree with her because it's implicit in the first sentence that it is countries being discussed.

Is this a little clearer for you?

However, of the total of 31, country A uses 10. That's not "most," so "The most is used in country A" is not correct.

It MAY be that country A uses 50 of something, so the first sentence could be true, but as a matter of logic, the two sentences to not have the same meaning.

I can't follow her reasoning above. Do you find it logical?

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as above
Hi Mame

B: In no other country is more oil used than in America.

B': In no country is more oil used than in America.

Is other tautologous here? I think so.

A: 'The most oil is used in USA' means USA takes more than 50 % of the world's consumption of oil.

'In no other country is more oil used than in USA.'

It means there are two columns, one for the countries and one for the numbers denoting the consumption, say, in gallons.

The biggest number is in the same row as USA.

A is not B

Another poster has agreed with the other poster. I really don't understand why they think alike when I believe otherwise.

I look forward to your response.

Best wishes.

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Yoong Liat wrote:

Mame wrote:
Ah, she's saying that sentence A did not specify the most oil compared to whoever else whereas the second sentence very clearly states that the USA uses more oil than any other country.

However, I disagree with her because it's implicit in the first sentence that it is countries being discussed.

Is this a little clearer for you?

However, of the total of 31, country A uses 10. That's not "most," so "The most is used in country A" is not correct.

It MAY be that country A uses 50 of something, so the first sentence could be true, but as a matter of logic, the two sentences to not have the same meaning.

BUT we don't know how much Country A uses - we just know it's the most. Period. A person would assume it's the most of all countries who use oil. In which case, the sentence would be correct (if it's true). It's an inference the reader makes.

I can't follow her reasoning above. Do you find it logical?

No, she's adding information (the amount and number of countries) that was not contained in the sentence.

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Re: as above

Yoong Liat wrote:

Hi Mame

B: In no other country is more oil used than in America.

B': In no country is more oil used than in America.

Is other tautologous here? I think so. YES!

A: 'The most oil is used in USA' means USA takes more than 50 % of the world's consumption of oil.

'In no other country is more oil used than in USA.'

It means there are two columns, one for the countries and one for the numbers denoting the consumption, say, in gallons.

~~~~~
NO, that's not correct. It does NOT mean that USA uses more than 50# of the world's consumption of oil. It simply means that of all the countries using oil, USA is the largest user. USA may only use 29% of the world's supply, but each of the other countries use less than that. The sentence simply says that USA is an oil hog! They use more than other countries, not more than all countries COMBINED.

~~~~~

The biggest number is in the same row as USA.

A is not B

Another poster has agreed with the other poster. I really don't understand why they think alike when I believe otherwise.

I look forward to your response.

Best wishes.

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Hi Mame

No, she's adding information (the amount and number of countries) that was not contained in the sentence.

In that case, she has distorted the issue. I've checked with another native speaker and she agrees that the two sentences have the same meaning.

Thanks for your response.

Best wishes.

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Re: meaning of sentences

Yoong Liat wrote:

Are the following 2 sentences the same in meaning?

A: The most oil is used in America.

B: In no other country is more oil used than in America.

Many thanks.

This was the way I interpret those sentences.

A) The word most means of ALL the oil produced. So, it doesn't matter what you compare America with. It is saying that America uses more than 50% of the total oil produced which would be the most.

B) Now in sentence B, America is being compared to countries. If America uses say 4 gallons and country B uses 3. America is using (more) most of the oil. If America uses 4 gallons and country C uses 2, than America is using (more) most of the oil. America is being compared to each country SEPARATE imo. If you use all the countries (A, B & C) in this case, The total oil used = America 4 gallons, country B 3 gallons and country C 2 gallons the total oil = 9 gallons. Since America only uses 4 than it is not most. This is assuming ALL countries total.

I edited this to correct a spelling error and also to say I didn't know you guys were there when I posted this Shocked

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Hi Mame

NO, that's not correct. It does NOT mean that USA uses more than 50# of the world's consumption of oil. It simply means that of all the countries using oil, USA is the largest user. USA may only use 29% of the world's supply, but each of the other countries use less than that. The sentence simply says that USA is an oil hog! They use more than other countries, not more than all countries COMBINED.

I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude for your detailed analysis. These posters are confusing me. And because I'm not a native speaker, I'm easily confused if they resort to distortion of the context. And by so doing, they're not helping me.

I point I would like to add is that I find the members of your forum are humble.

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You are most welcome - it is a difficult language to get a grasp of. You're doing very well.

Sometimes you can have identical wording with different meanings depending on where the emphasis is - now that's a nightmare!

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This question all revolves around the interpretation of the word "most".
If you interpret it to mean "majority" then the sentences do not mean the same. If on the other hand you interpret "most" to mean "most of any country using oil" then the sentences mean the same.
I think it is a very personal interpretation. My view would go with the "majority" interpretation, but I would not tell anyone who goes with the alternative interpretation that they are wrong, only that I interpret it differently.
My view is therefore that this is a poor question because it does not have a definitive answer. I therefore sympathise with Yoong Liat for having to deal with an ambiguous question in a language other than the native tongue.

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Thanks, Tufdevil, your explanation is logical. It makes me feel better after being told that I was wrong by the native speaker.

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