10 exercises — how "north of" (more than) and "south of" (less than) frame a figure against a threshold.
Quick reference
North of X: more than X — a floor on a numeric figure
South of X: less than X — a ceiling on a numeric figure
Fixed form: no article, must be followed directly by a number, not a clause
Close synonym: "more than" / "less than"
Register: neutral-to-informal, common in spoken standups and written cost or performance reports
0 / 10 completed
1 / 10
A capacity-planning doc reads: "Peak traffic is now running ___ 50,000 requests per second, well above our original estimate." Which phrase best signals "more than" a numeric threshold?
North of is a fixed idiom meaning "more than" or "in excess of" when describing a number. It takes no article and stays uninflected. "The north of" wrongly adds an article, "north from" uses the wrong preposition, and "norths of" wrongly pluralizes "north."
2 / 10
Which sentence uses "north of" / "south of" correctly?
"The new instance type costs north of $2,000 a month, while the old one stayed south of $500" correctly uses "north of" for "more than" and "south of" for "less than" a figure. Both require a following number; they cannot stand alone or attach to a plan or instruction.
3 / 10
Fill the blank: "Latency on the new endpoint stays ___ 100ms even under peak load, comfortably inside our SLA."
South of has a fixed word order: "south" + "of," with no article. The other options either scramble the order or wrongly insert "the."
4 / 10
Which pair correctly distinguishes "north of $X" from "roughly $X"?
"The bill came in north of $10,000" tells you the actual figure exceeded $10,000. "The bill came in roughly $10,000" could mean slightly more or slightly less. The two give different precision guarantees.
5 / 10
An incident report reads: "Error rates spiked to ___ 15%, before recovering to their normal baseline south of 1%." Which best completes the first blank?
North of is the correct, fixed form. The other options either scramble the word order or use an incorrect preposition.
6 / 10
Which sentence contains an error in the use of "north of" / "south of"?
"North of that the finance team flagged in the budget review, cloud spend rose sharply" incorrectly attaches a relative clause to the fixed idiom, which must be followed directly by a number, not a clause. The other three sentences use it correctly before a numeric figure.
7 / 10
Choose the sentence where "north of" is best replaced by "more than" without changing the meaning.
"The dataset now contains more than two million records" preserves the meaning exactly. The other options misuse the phrase as an urgency marker, an unrelated construction without a following number, or a pairing with a specific future date.
8 / 10
A performance report states: "After the optimization, p99 latency dropped to ___ 50ms, down from north of 300ms before the change." Which best fits the first blank?
South of is the correct, standard form — no article, uninflected. Option A wrongly adds "the." Option B wrongly pluralizes "south." Option D wrongly uses "from" instead of "of."
9 / 10
Which register note about "north of" / "south of" for numbers is accurate?
"North of" / "south of" work equally well in a spoken standup ("We're north of budget already") and a written cost report. They always frame a figure as exceeding or falling short of a threshold, not a literal compass direction.
10 / 10
Which sentence best demonstrates "north of" / "south of" framing a metric relative to a numeric threshold?
"Storage costs crept north of $8,000... so the team is now working to bring it back south of $5,000" is the textbook use: two numeric thresholds framed with "north of" and "south of." The other options misuse the phrase as a command intensifier, insert it awkwardly mid-clause with no following number, or pair it incorrectly with a future date.
What will I practise in ""North Of" / "South Of" for Numeric Comparison — IT English Grammar"?
Practice using "north of" and "south of" to frame a metric as above or below a numeric threshold, in cost, performance, and capacity reports.
How many exercises are in this module?
This module has 10 multiple-choice exercises, each with instant feedback and a full explanation of the correct answer.
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Every exercise is written by the CoderSlingo team, drawing on real workplace English used in IT roles, then reviewed for accuracy and clarity.