Comparing quantities of nouns (plus de... que)

Environmental impact

Let's look at some vocabulary for talking about the environment and pollution.

The factory produces pollution.
L'usine produit de la pollution.
Cars pollute the city's air.
Les voitures polluent l'air de la ville.

Comparing quantities

To compare quantities of nouns, use plus de (more), moins de (less/fewer), or autant de (as much/as many) before the noun. To complete the comparison with "than" or "as", use que.

Cars produce more pollution than bikes.
Les voitures produisent plus de pollution que les vélos.

English distinguishes between "less" for uncountable nouns (like pollution) and "fewer" for countable ones (like factories). French simply uses moins de for both.

To save the environment, there is less pollution in the air than yesterday.
Pour sauver l'environnement, il y a moins de pollution dans l'air qu'hier.
The student uses less paper and protects the environment.
L'étudiant utilise moins de papier et protège l'environnement.

When comparing adjectives, we use aussi (as). But when comparing quantities of nouns, always use autant de.

Do you recycle as much plastic as me?
Est-ce que tu recycles autant de plastique que moi ?

Just like with other expressions of quantity, de drops its e and becomes d' before a vowel sound.

The city has as many factories as the region.
La ville a autant d'usines que la région.

Saving the earth

We can use these comparisons to talk about waste (les déchets) and saving (sauver) the earth (la terre).

There is more waste on the beach than in the park.
Il y a plus de déchets sur la plage que dans le parc.
We recycle more waste than you to save the earth.
Nous recyclons plus de déchets que vous pour sauver la terre.

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