Over vs. More than

I knew there was a reason I liked you more than most.

 

I sure as hell hope so. Still hear it repeatedly, even from people who seriously think they'll one day win one.

 

What about "over" versus "against?"

My boss always uses "So and So shot the ball well in a victory over East So and So."

I always change over to against. I'm right, right?

 

Yours is more grammatically correct, but the former has become so used it's generally accepted.

 

What's the "more than"/"fewer than" on tonight's game?

Just illustrating that while technically incorrect, "over" isn't the taboo that we're making it out to be.

 

One of my j-school copy editing professors told me a few years ago that some newsrooms do not like "over" being used. She did not even like students using it for her assignments.

She did suggest that you could use "approximately" instead of over or under...

This was my reaction: ??? ???

 

One of my college advisors had a sign over his office door. It read: This sign in more than the door. Over is the wrong word in that circumstance. Never forgot the rule after seeing that sign.

 

I've always been a "more than" guy, but there are some gray areas I've run across lately where "over" seemed a better fit. Naturally, I can't think of any now.

I'm also a "past" guy, as in "the past 30 games"...but I would also never say, "this past weekend" and would always say "last weekend."

There are those that say my accepting "last" in the second instance means I should be OK with "last" in the first, and they're probably right, but oh, well.

 

Or as our desk here would say "more than $20 PER week."
It's correct, but annoting to change because nobody speaks like that.

 

I used to be hung up on all this but I don't care anymore. Maybe its simply a matter of having less time to correct these little things, I don't know. But I'm not going to sweat "win" or "victory," "over" or "more than" or any of these other anal-retentive, copy-editor arguments. I used to think this attention to detail was the mark of a good section but I think it's waaaaaaay overrated now. We have more important things to sweat and our readers don't care about these arguments.

 

Agreed. The main reason we have style guides is to make sure the reader understands what we're writing. Every reader will understand what you mean when you use over in that way