I found confusing the following type of sentence:
Both work out quite well but the dwarf tends to have a bit more vitality than the elf does.
Why do we use does at the end of the sentence to refer to something previously described using "to have"? It looks a bit misplaced. As a counter-argument, the following equivalent sentence sounds okay:
AWS tends to offer more RAM than Microsoft does as the server instances get large
Is there some principle at play here?
Thank you.
Best Answer
"Does" is not required in either sentence. Often, the verb will be included after "I" to tone down what many consider a too-formal way of speaking. In other words, "He is taller than I am" seems easier for many to accept than "He is taller than I." But in fact the verb is not needed in any of these cases.
Including the verb can also prevent ambiguity in some cases. If your sentence used a plural, for example: saying "the dwarf tends to have a bit more vitality than elves" allows the grammatical possibility that the dwarf has more vitality than he has elves. So, better is: "the dwarf tends to have a bit more vitality than elves do."
But in your sentences, there is no reason to include the "does." Omitting it does not create ambiguity, and it sounds fine (even better, IMO) without it.