You are more interesting than he

[avishal]

Hi,

In the 3rd edition SC book, under the comparisons strategy chapter, the following example appears as a regular comparative form:

"You are MORE INTERESTING than he."

Shouldn't this be "you are more interesting than he is/was."? Is "is/was" assumed on GMAT?
Why is "you are more interesting than him." wrong (if so)?

On the same topic, what is correct on the GMAT [my own imagined sentence]:

a) "George dances better than me."
b) "George dances better than I."
c) "George dances better than I do."

Between (b) and (c), (c) certainly seems better. However, could it be that "do" is assumed in (b)?
Between (a) and (c), I'm not so sure :)

Regards,
Vishal

[JonathanSchneider]

These comparisons create a case of parallelism. As such, you need to make the elements parallel both structurally and logically. You cannot say "You are more interesting than him," because the two elements are "you" and "him," and "you" is functioning as a subject. Thus, we need the subject pronoun "he," not the object pronoun "him."

You do not need the "is" after he, because it is assumed. You can have it, of course; it's just not necessary. Ditto with the example you've provided. Both B and C are correct. When the comparison is relatively short, and the words are thus close together, we usually drop the verb from the second element. When there has been a long chunk of words interrupting the two elements, however, we usually need to include the verb to more clearly connect the second element back to the first.