'Young' or 'Younger'

2024-04-27

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1
  • Hello! This week on Ask a Teacher, we answer a question from David in China.
  • 2
  • Hello,
  • 3
  • My name is David, and I am from China.
  • 4
  • Here comes a sentence "My mother had a sweet singing voice when she was younger".
  • 5
  • My question is that whether we can use "young" instead "younger" or not?
  • 6
  • I am looking forward to receiving your reply.
  • 7
  • Thank you very much.
  • 8
  • David
  • 9
  • Thank you for writing, David.
  • 10
  • This is a good question.
  • 11
  • The short answer is yes. You can use "young" instead of "younger."
  • 12
  • But using "young" instead of "younger" does change the meaning of the sentence just a bit.
  • 13
  • Let's look at the differences between the two choices.
  • 14
  • "Young" and "younger" are both adjectives.
  • 15
  • Adjectives are words that describe nouns.
  • 16
  • "Younger" is a comparative adjective.
  • 17
  • Comparative adjectives are used to compare two people or things.
  • 18
  • Comparative adjectives are easy to recognize because they often have an "-er" ending.
  • 19
  • They are also often, but not always, followed by the conjunction "than."
  • 20
  • Let's look again at David's original example sentence:
  • 21
  • My mother had a sweet singing voice when she was younger.
  • 22
  • In this situation, "younger" is describing "mother."
  • 23
  • But it is not so clear what is being compared.
  • 24
  • That is because we sometimes leave out information from a sentence.
  • 25
  • Even without the extra information, however, the listener or reader is still likely to understand the full thought or meaning.
  • 26
  • As readers, we understand the full meaning of David's sentence to be: My mother had a sweet singing voice when she was younger than she is now.
  • 27
  • We do not know how old the mother is now. But we know she had a sweet singing voice when she was younger than her current age.
  • 28
  • Let's say, for example, that the writer's mother is 60 years old.
  • 29
  • The writer of the sentence could mean that his mother had a sweet singing voice when she was 40 years old, for example.
  • 30
  • Or the writer could mean that his mother had a sweet singing voice when she was 15 years old.
  • 31
  • Both 15 years old and 40 years old are younger than 60.
  • 32
  • Now let's consider how the sentence's meaning might change if we were to use "young" instead of "younger." The sentence would be:
  • 33
  • My mother had a sweet singing voice when she was young.
  • 34
  • The meaning has changed just a bit. Now it is clear that the writer means his mother had a sweet singing voice when she was a young person, or in her youth.
  • 35
  • We hope this explanation has helped you, David.
  • 36
  • Do you have a question about American English? Send us an email at learningenglish@voanews.com.
  • 37
  • And that's Ask a Teacher.
  • 38
  • I'm Gena Bennett.
  • 1
  • Hello! This week on Ask a Teacher, we answer a question from David in China.
  • 2
  • Question
  • 3
  • Hello,
  • 4
  • My name is David, and I am from China.
  • 5
  • Here comes a sentence "My mother had a sweet singing voice when she was younger". My question is that whether we can use "young" instead "younger" or not?
  • 6
  • I am looking forward to receiving your reply.
  • 7
  • Thank you very much.
  • 8
  • David
  • 9
  • Answer
  • 10
  • Thank you for writing, David. This is a good question.
  • 11
  • The short answer is yes. You can use "young" instead of "younger." But using "young" instead of "younger" does change the meaning of the sentence just a bit.
  • 12
  • Let's look at the differences between the two choices.
  • 13
  • "Young" and "younger" are both adjectives. Adjectives are words that describe nouns. "Younger" is a comparative adjective. Comparative adjectives are used to compare two people or things. Comparative adjectives are easy to recognize because they often have an "-er" ending. They are also often, but not always, followed by the conjunction "than."
  • 14
  • Let's look again at David's original example sentence:
  • 15
  • My mother had a sweet singing voice when she was younger.
  • 16
  • In this situation, "younger" is describing "mother." But it is not so clear what is being compared. That is because we sometimes leave out information from a sentence. Even without the extra information, however, the listener or reader is still likely to understand the full thought or meaning.
  • 17
  • As readers, we understand the full meaning of David's sentence to be: My mother had a sweet singing voice when she was younger than she is now.
  • 18
  • We do not know how old the mother is now. But we know she had a sweet singing voice when she was younger than her current age.
  • 19
  • Let's say, for example, that the writer's mother is 60 years old. The writer of the sentence could mean that his mother had a sweet singing voice when she was 40 years old, for example. Or the writer could mean that his mother had a sweet singing voice when she was 15 years old. Both 15 years old and 40 years old are younger than 60.
  • 20
  • Now let's consider how the sentence's meaning might change if we were to use "young" instead of "younger." The sentence would be:
  • 21
  • My mother had a sweet singing voice when she was young.
  • 22
  • The meaning has changed just a bit. Now it is clear that the writer means his mother had a sweet singing voice when she was a young person, or in her youth.
  • 23
  • We hope this explanation has helped you, David.
  • 24
  • Do you have a question about American English? Send us an email at learningenglish@voanews.com.
  • 25
  • And that's Ask a Teacher.
  • 26
  • I'm Gena Bennett.
  • 27
  • Gena Bennett wrote this lesson for VOA Learning English.