A is 8 times older to B
Does this mean (a) A's age = 8 * B's age or (b) A's age = A's age = 8 * B's age + B's age?
Similarly what is the meaning of A is 8 times older than B?
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As far as I know, "8 times older to" isn't English. "8 times older than" is English but unfortunately ambiguous. Taken literally, it means "9 times as old as" but it's very often used to mean "8times a old as". As with most ambiguities, I recommend avoiding it and using "8 times as old as" or "9 times as old as". – Andreas Blass Aug 20 '15 at 20:15
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Possible duplicate of Has the illogical "three times bigger" replaced "three times as big" in common usage? Also see “X times as many as” or “X times more than” and Is “Four times more” grammatically correct? And, if so, what precisely does it mean? – choster Aug 20 '15 at 21:11
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Most expressions of this sort are hopelessly ambiguous. – Hot Licks Aug 21 '15 at 02:01
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And, as choster's list points out, this sort of question has been asked quite frequently. – Hot Licks Aug 21 '15 at 02:06
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Welcome, Kiran. There is another StackExchange site that you might also like: http://ell.stackexchange.com. – aparente001 Aug 23 '15 at 14:06
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It's not really correct to say A is 8 times older than B, because that would imply that being older has a distinct value that can be multiplied by 8. That is why it's hard to understand what it means.
Mathematically speaking, to say that A is 8 times older requires you first to decide how much older one unit is. In other words:
C is 6 months older than B.
A is 8 times older than B, than C is.
Therefore A is 4 years older than B.
But this is an English forum, not a Maths forum.
So the best thing to say is: A is 8 times as old as B.
Then it's obvious that A's age = 8 * B's age.
Seth Jeffery
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Yes, it's only slightly more meaningful than saying that A's body temperature is twice what B's is. – Hot Licks Aug 21 '15 at 02:05
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Your sentence is wrong. The correct version is,
A is 8 times older than B.
It means,
A's age = 8 * B's age.
chasly - supports Monica
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