Learn English – What’s the difference between ‘as much, if not more, than’ and ‘as much, if not more, as’

expressions

When I found as much, if not more, than, I had an impression that than might be wrong at first because the phrase looked like a variation of as much as. However, there’re a lot of examples of both of them on the Net. Do they have different meanings?

  1. as much, if not more, than (Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (5) [US Version]: p501)

He was no longer their sullen host of the summer; now he seemed determined that everyone should enjoy themselves as much, if not more, than they would have done at Hogwarts, and he worked tirelessly in the run-up to Christmas Day, cleaning and decorating with their help, so that by the time they all went to bed on Christmas Eve the house was barely recognizable.

  1. as much, if not more, as (From Google search)

The imports in 1877 amounted to as much, if not more, as in 1876, though I have not been able to procure the exact figures.

Best Answer

Both examples have odd syntax. Written in full, the first would be:

. . . he seemed determined that everyone should enjoy themselves as much as they would have done at Hogwarts, if not more than they would have done at Hogwarts . . .

To express the same thing elliptically it is necessary to write:

. . . he seemed determined that everyone should enjoy themselves as much as, if not more, than they would have done at Hogwarts . . .

Applying the same process to the second example, we get:

The imports in 1877 amounted to as much as those in 1876, if not more than those in 1876.

Elliptically:

The imports in 1877 amounted to as much as, if not more than, those in 1876

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