Are comparisons necessary with certain words?

[laepelba]

Still working in my workbook here. In this exercise, there is a list of sentences that describe the "ideal pet". I don't have any questions about the meanings of the sentences or the answers to the exercises.

But there are two sentences that seem strange to me:
- Más vale que no muerda las patas de los muebles.
- Es mejor que no pelee con los perros y gatos de los vecinos.

Now, each of these sentences "stands alone", with no context other than what I've given you (descriptions of the ideal pet).

My question: if both sentences carry the sense that "it is better that....", doesn't there need to be something else that "it is better" than? :?:

Does my question make sense?

[Perikles]

My question: if both sentences carry the sense that "it is better that....", doesn't there need to be something else that "it is better" than? :?:

Does my question make sense?Yes it does make sense, and my answer is that the "than...." is (yet again) ellipsed, and understood, because it is the opposite of the stated case.

There are other examples, for instance menos mal just as well;


menos mal que no me oyó just as well o good thing o thank goodness he didn't hear me;

Here it is a comparative, being compared with an unspoken '.. than he did hear me'

Does that help? :)

Edit: not very well explained. What I mean is that if you say X is better than Y, then the comparison has to be expressed. But you can say X is better than NOT X, in which case the second half is understood.

[laepelba]

It helped before you added the mathematical functions, but those more analytical explanations are always more than welcome!! :) Makes lots of sense, thanks, sir! :)

[Perikles]

It helped before you added the mathematical functions, but those more analytical explanations are always more than welcome!! :) Makes lots of sense, thanks, sir! :)You're welcome. I've been thinking that it also happens in English, when you say things like "It's raining, I had better put a coat on." i.e. better than not putting a coat on. :)

[laepelba]

You are SO right! I never thought of the fact that we use the word "better" or "best" like that (I could just as easily say "I'd best bring an umbrella..."). ¡Qué bárbaro! :)

[JPablo]

[Nothing to add here, but I couldn't resist to add that I love when you say "¡Qué bárbaro!"... it is so genuinely Argentinian!] (It is also used in Spain... but somehow it reminds me very much of my Argentinean friends, as they definitely used the expression.) :)

[hermit]

I guess it has to be "best" to need something to be "better than"...

"Better than not" - neat take.

[laepelba]

I believe that "bárbaro" is a Rioplatense thing because my Uruguayan friends in Montevideo also say it.......... Glad you enjoy hearing it. The other thing that they said ALL the time in Argentina was "Qué horrible!" I don't really like that, because to them EVERYTHING was "horrible", but I am not one to over-exaggerate mildly bad things because then what do you way when something is truly "horrible"??

[ookami]

But look the examples you have in the colloquial usage (the one you heared)

horrible.
(Del lat. horribĭlis).
1. adj. Que causa horror.
2. adj. coloq. Muy feo.
3. adj. coloq. Muy intenso o acentuado. Nos dio un susto horrible.
4. adj. coloq. Muy malo, pésimo. Nos dieron un café horrible.

I don't know how to measure things from Horrible to Gorgeous..., a coffe without sugar, is horrible, an a murder scene maybe is horrible too. There you aren't saying that the importance is the same for you, but the effect is alike.

In sumary, we use "horrible" as "feo".

"¡Qué día horrible!" / "¡Qué día feo!"
(but with people is better to use "feo")

[laepelba]

Okay, Ookami, I'll give you the "muy feo" one (y'all say THAT a lot, too!) ... but you know exactly the TONE of voice I'm talking about ... ¡Qué horrible! :)

[JPablo]

:eek:
(Similar...)
Curiosamente, y ya que estamos con "comparaciones" y comparando "bárbaro" con "horrible"... me he acordado de un poema de Machado... que popularizó Joan Manuel Serrat...

No puedo cantar, ni quiero, a ese Jesús del madero, = horrible

¡sino al que anduvo en el mar! = bárbaro/fenomenal

¡Aquí lo tenés!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pHwhhVWoFJI