5 exercises — practise the negative-only scalar additive "much less".
0 / 5 completed
1 / 5
Which sentence correctly uses "much less" after a negative main clause to rule out an even less likely case?
"...hasn't touched the deployment scripts, much less modified the production config" correctly uses "much less" after a negative clause to rule out the even more extreme case. Option B wrongly attaches it to an affirmative main clause, where "much less" is not licensed. Option C wrongly uses a to-infinitive instead of the matching past-tense verb form. Option D wrongly substitutes "fewer" for "less".
2 / 5
Which sentence correctly uses "much less" after a negative clause about basic knowledge, to rule out advanced knowledge?
"...doesn't know the old cron syntax, much less the new scheduler's YAML format" correctly follows a negative clause with "much less" plus the noun phrase for the even less likely case. Option B attaches it to an affirmative clause, which is ungrammatical. Option C wrongly adds "than". Option D scrambles the word order.
3 / 5
Which sentence correctly distinguishes "much less" (requires a negative main clause) from "let alone" (also usable after weaker negative implications)?
"...can't handle a hundred..., much less a thousand, ...barely manages ten, let alone a hundred..." keeps both scalar additives attached to clearly negative or barely-positive contexts consistent with their meaning. Option B and D attach them to fully affirmative clauses, which breaks the required negative-scalar logic; option C reverses which additive pairs with which clause in a confusing way relative to the intended scale.
4 / 5
Which sentence correctly uses "much less" in a code review comment ruling out an even less likely scenario?
"...doesn't validate its input at all, much less sanitize it against injection" correctly follows the negative clause with "much less" plus a bare verb form parallel to "validate". Option B attaches it to an affirmative clause. Options C and D wrongly use a to-infinitive or gerund instead of matching the bare form of the first verb.
5 / 5
Which sentence correctly uses "much less" to escalate a claim about test coverage in a negative context?
"...has no unit tests at all, much less integration tests" correctly follows the negative clause ("no unit tests") with "much less" to rule out the even less likely case of integration tests existing. Option B attaches it to an affirmative clause. Option C wrongly adds "than". Option D wrongly substitutes "fewer" for "less".