I have 10 beans. Jim has four times more.
Is this a valid sentence? And, if so, does it mean Jim has 40 or 50 beans?
Learn English – Is “Four times more” grammatically correct? And, if so, what precisely does it mean
ambiguitygrammaticalitymeaningnumbers
Related Solutions
2×4:
Image courtesy of Wikipedia.
Edit: Wikipedia has since corrected itself that this is indeed a 2×6, but you get the idea.
Oh, and the sentence as a whole means that the observation was a big surprise or a great shock; an aha experience or a eureka moment; an eye-opener.
The trick to understanding this advert comes at the beginning:
Here’s introducing iDiva: Five Magazines in One
So the publisher is saying their magazine is the equivalent of five other magazines.
Also they are selling the first issue at a cut down introductory price:
At an introductory price of Rs 5 per copy
So, in their mind, the magazine is cheap even compared to a normal magazine, but because it is five magazines in one, the cheapness is exaggerated by that multiple, so this deal is five times better than any normal discount on a magazine, i.e. five times over.
Best Answer
I would recommend against using four times more in this context, although it would generally be understood to mean 40. What I would say is four times as many.
Googling four times more and four times as many, it seems that four times more is generally used with uncountable nouns, and four times as many with countable nouns.
versus
I won't do more than mention the confusing construction four times as many more, which I would recommend against using, as I think it's ambiguous.
UPDATE:
The grammatical rule is: use X times as many with countable nouns, and X times as much with uncountable nouns. The construction X times more is grammatical with both, but as many and as much are clearer in this context. Modifying adjectives, however, you should use four times more (or four times as):