5 exercises — using comparison language accurately in ADRs, design docs, and technical reports: more efficient than, less prone to, preferable to, outperforms.
0 / 5 completed
1 / 5
A developer compares two deployment strategies. Which sentence uses "more efficient than" correctly?
Option B is correct. The comparative structure is: [Subject] is/are more [adjective] than [noun/noun phrase]. "More efficient than rolling updates" — "than" introduces the term of comparison. Option A incorrectly adds "to do" after "than" — the comparison should use a parallel noun phrase ("rolling updates"), not an infinitive phrase. Option C omits "than" entirely — "more efficient rolling updates" is ungrammatical. Option D uses "as" instead of "than" — "more X as Y" is a German/Spanish/Ukrainian interference error; English uses "more X than Y" for comparatives.
2 / 5
An architect writes an ADR. Which sentence correctly uses "less prone to errors"?
Option B is correct. "Less prone to errors than" uses "less" (the comparative of "little/few" for adjectives) + "than" for the comparison. Option A uses "as" instead of "than" — same error as in the previous exercise (comparatives use "than", not "as"). Option C omits "to" after "compared" — the correct phrase is "compared to" or "compared with". Option D uses "fewer" — "fewer" applies to countable nouns ("fewer errors"), while "less prone" refers to a degree of an adjective, so "less" is correct here. IT comparative templates: less prone to / less likely to / less complex than / less error-prone than.
3 / 5
Which sentence correctly uses "preferable to" in a technical recommendation?
Option B is correct. "Preferable" takes the preposition "to": X is preferable to Y. Option A uses "than" — but "preferable" is already an absolute comparative (it contains the concept of comparison), so it does not use "than". "Prefer X to Y" (not "prefer X than Y"). Option C uses "more preferable" — this is redundant since "preferable" already means "more preferred"; never use "more preferable". Option D uses "preferable over" — this is not standard; the fixed collocation is "preferable to". Key phrase: "Option A is preferable to Option B because it reduces operational overhead."
4 / 5
A performance report compares two systems. Which sentence correctly uses "outperforms"?
Option A is correct. "Outperforms" is a transitive verb that takes a direct object: X outperforms Y [in/for context]. No "than" is needed after transitive comparative verbs. Option B incorrectly adds "than" after "outperforms" — transitive comparison verbs (outperform, exceed, surpass, beat) are followed directly by their object. Option C adds "more than" incorrectly. Option D adds "more efficient" as an adverb — "more efficient" is an adjective and cannot modify a verb; you would say "more efficiently". Use: X outperforms Y, X exceeds Y, X surpasses Y, X beats Y in [context].
5 / 5
A system design document compares two approaches. Which sentence presents the most complete and professional comparison?
Option B is the strongest comparison. It: (1) uses a precise degree adverb ("considerably more complex"), (2) specifies the domain of comparison ("to implement"), (3) names specific benefits ("immutable audit log", "time-travel debugging"), (4) uses "making it preferable" with a specific condition ("for domains where data history is a first-class requirement"). Option A is vague — "better" is not specific. Option C names benefits but without precision ("more benefits like"). Option D fragments the comparison across three sentences without coherent structure. In technical trade-off writing: state the complexity cost + name the specific benefit + qualify when it is the right choice.