GIVE ANSWERS - English

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Which is correct?: How older are you? vs How much older are you? (in comparison with your brother)

GIVE ANSWERS

exRanger profile picture exRangerSeptember 2019
"How much older..." is the correct option.
AussieInBg profile picture AussieInBgAugust 2020
"How much older are you?" is the correct form.

To determine the comparative "A older than B" or "B older than A", we have the question:

"Is A older than B?".

For comparing "you" and "me", the question and answer is:

- "Are you older than me?"
- "No, you are older than me."

Great - we know that there is a difference in the number of years lived.

Then comes the question to quantify this difference.

If we talk about the number of years a person has lived, then the word "age" is uncountable.

e.g. He is 25 years of age.

We usually use the short form in conversation:

"He is 25." ( = "He is 25 years of age." )

The key word here is "age".

We are comparing between two people the difference of the (grammatically!!!) uncountable quantity "age".

So, you must use "much" in your question to quantify.

"How much older are you?" is therefore the correct question.

So, in context, a conversation might be like this:

- "Are you older than me?"
- "No, you are older than me."
-"How much older are you?"
-"I'm 40 and you're 25. I'm 15 years older than you."
yoespanol profile picture yoespanolApril 2013
Here, as far as my knowledge goes-
" Many " is used for countable nouns..." Much " is used for uncountable ones...Years can be counted...so using ' Many ' is appropriate, I think ...How many years is he/your brother younger to you? How many years are you older than him/your brother?
liveforthemoment profile picture liveforthemomentApril 2013
I think "How much older are you" is correct, but you can also say "how many years older are you?"
l_mas6 profile picture l_mas6July 2019
"how old are you"
but when you want to compare
"how much (he/you) older than (you/him)"
Haytamouali profile picture HaytamoualiAugust 2023

How older than .... are you ? As I know

ofox0330 profile picture ofox0330August 2023
another way you can say the same thing is ”how many years older is (blank)”
mac2210 profile picture mac2210December 2022
’much’ is used as an adverb with ’older’ . It’s not about countable or non countable nouns. We can use adverbs before adjectives, in this case a comparitive adjective. My brother is much older than me. How much older is your brother than you?