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Thu 10 Nov, 2005 12:19 pm
Hello,
I am looking for clarification regarding the use of better and worse.
If one is used in relation to the other does that always mean that the opposite applies as well? If I were to say that something is better than something else does it always follow that the other would be worse? Or are there cases where since neither are in any way good, one is worse but the other is not better?
For example, Chips are worse for your health than cake, but cake is not better for your health than chips.
Thank you very much.
Better and worse are used to describe relative order of quality. Therefore, if one thing is better, then the other thing is by definition worse.
However, better and worse are opinions...and different people may value certain properties in a different way..so one person might consider one thing to be obviously better while another person would not.
In general, there are 3 levels:
Good, better, best.
Good means that the quality is above some threshold value that marks it as desirable
better means that it is higher in quality than another specific object
Best means that out of all objects, it has the highest quality
Most people don't realize that better (best) and worse (worst) are the comparatives (and superlatives) another word...ill.
Three days ago, I was very ill, yesterday I was better, but today I am worst of all.
As for chips and cakes... Technically, if chips are worse than cake, then cake is better than chips.
That is why we use the expressions like: cakes are bad but chips are even worse...
Andy
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