Recently, I have heard similar comparisons like these :
- Device A is "6 times slower" than Device B
- This earthquake is "9 times smaller" than the previous one
Huh ?
How then, do you make sense of :
- Country A is "2 times colder" than Country B
If Country B 's outdoor temperature is 0 (zero) degrees celcius ? What is the temperature of Country A then ?
When in primary school, I remembered that when comparing a measurement that is smaller than point of reference, it is in fractions (or percentage). Multiples or "times" is for bigger !
Is "make this half the size" equivalent to "make this 2 times smaller" ? Does the latter make any sense to you ?
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Side track :
When you use the term "triple", do you mean "2 times bigger", or "3 time bigger" to you ? If you want to say the former, most probably your mastery of the Chinese language is pretty good.
This happens to mainly Chinese that I know of. I think it is "bi-lingualism" at work.
You see, when you double the size of something, say enlarge by a photocopying machine, the proper Mandarin way of saying it is "fang4 da4 yi1 bei4" (literally 'make bigger by 1 time').
Another example would be comparing salary. A earns $1000, B earns $2000. B earns more by "yi1 bei4". (1 time extra)
Mathematically, B is 200% of A. But the chinese is saying is something like "the EXTRA is 100% more than the original".
Thus the confusion when the English "Double" equivalent in Mandarin is "1 times more" and "Triple" is "2 times more".
Thus I see many people unable to translate quickly between the 2 languages with regards to the terms used.
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Back to the topic.
Whenever there is a comparison, smaller, bigger, faster, slower, etc, there has to be a common point of reference. The easiest is to use one of the object as the point of reference. And it is common understanding to use the first object in the sentence as the reference.
Thus, the correct way is "A is two times the size of B" or "B is half the size of A".
To say "A is two times bigger than B" is obviously a Chinese way of saying it, and most probably conjures different images between Chinese and non-Chinese.
To say "B is two times smaller than A" is obviously incorrect.
2 comments:
Twice is "two times of", thrice is "three times of".
Suppose Land A is 20 km-squared, Land B is twice as large, which means it's 40, and C, thrice as large, which means it's 60.
heathcliff24,
Yes, you are absolutely correct.
Noticed I use "two times the size of" and you use "two times as large".
What is wrong is "two times bigger than"
So care to explain to me "two times smaller than" ? :)
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