November 07, 2011

old and older

In an earlier post I said that the San Wang Wu Ti master of rituals is getting older.

Look at these 2 sentences:
(1) He is getting older.

(2) He is getting old.

Do they have the same meaning? Does older mean very old?


It depends. However, in many instances older is not old at all.


For example, you may tell your teenager son: "You are getting older. You must be more responsible."

In fact older is only a comparative.

Everyone grows older everyday. But we cannot say Everyone grows old everyday.

In some cases saying to your friend 'You are getting older' is better than 'You are getting old'.

No comments: