Comparative Structures — Technical English Grammar
Practice technical comparisons: X performs better than Y, the more traffic the higher the latency, unlike traditional approaches.
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Complete the sentence: 'Microservices scale _____ monoliths when traffic increases.'
'Better than' is the correct comparative form for an adverb ('well → better than'). Microservices scale better than monoliths compares performance using a standard adjective/adverb comparative. 'More than' compares quantity, not quality of scaling. 'As well as' expresses equality, not superiority. 'Similar to' expresses similarity, not comparison of degree. In technical writing, 'X performs better than Y' and 'X scales better than Y' are the standard patterns for performance comparisons.
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Complete the sentence: 'The _____ the number of replicas, the higher the resource costs.'
The 'the + comparative... the + comparative' structure requires a comparative adjective or adverb in both clauses. 'The more X, the higher Y' is the standard pattern. 'More' is the comparative of 'many' and 'much' and works with countable nouns like replicas. 'Most' is a superlative — it cannot be used in this pattern. 'Greater' and 'larger' are also comparatives but 'the greater the number of replicas' is less natural than 'the more replicas'. The pattern signals a proportional relationship, common in capacity planning discussions.
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Complete the sentence: 'Unlike REST, GraphQL allows clients _____.'
'Allow' takes an object + infinitive: 'allow [someone] to do something'. 'GraphQL allows clients to specify...' is the correct structure. 'Allow + gerund' ('allows specifying') is possible when there is no explicit object, but 'allows clients specifying' is ungrammatical. 'Allow + that-clause' is not standard. 'Allow for + gerund' means 'make provision for', which changes the meaning. This pattern also appears with 'enable', 'permit', and 'require' — all take object + infinitive.
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Complete the sentence: 'React is faster _____ traditional server-rendered pages for interactive UIs.'
'Than' is used in comparisons: 'faster than', 'more reliable than', 'less expensive than'. 'Then' is an adverb of time ('first X, then Y') — a very common written error. 'As' introduces an equality comparison ('as fast as') — using 'as' here would require 'as fast as', not 'faster as'. 'Like' introduces a similarity, not a comparison of degree. The pattern 'adjective + than' is the most frequent comparison structure in technical writing.
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Which sentence correctly uses 'as...as' to compare performance of two services?
The equality comparison structure is 'as + adjective + as': 'as fast as', 'as reliable as', 'as scalable as'. Both 'as' particles are required. 'As fast than' mixes two structures ('as...as' and 'comparative + than'). 'As faster as' uses a comparative adjective inside the 'as...as' structure, which is incorrect — the base form is required. 'Fast as' omits the first 'as'. In performance benchmarking, 'performs as well as', 'is as reliable as', and 'scales as effectively as' are common equivalence claims.