reduce/decrease

ofriendragon

ofriendragon

Senior Member
The English School of WR World Study
Chinese
reduce/decrease
When they are used in "verb + noun" form, what's (if any) the main difference between them?

Are the following phrases correct?

1.
reduce air pollution
decrease air pollution

2.
reduce happiness
decrease happiness

3.
reduce the speed
decrease the speed

4.
reduce the number of working hours
decrease the number of working hours

Hope you could help me with it.

Many many thanks in advance.
 
    • As far as common speech is concerned the two are interchangable. They are often both used in a sentence to avoid repetition of the same word (while qualifying the subject as the same concept) in a subclause:

    Reduce carbon output in order to decrease air pollution.
    Decrease carbon output in order to reduce air pollution.

    Study could reduce anthrax shots, decreasing side effects...
    Study could decrease anthrax shots, reducing side effects...
     
    I think sound shift may be correct, which would mean that 'decrease' would only be used in the subclause and thus may not be freely interchangeable.
     
    Two of the native posters here agree that 'decrease' should be used intransively. However, all dictionaries I have and know of state its transitive use. Longman online dictionary, Macmillian online dictionary, reference.com are among them.

    I have an exercise question:
    He invented a method to .......... liver surgery time from 3 hours to 2 hours.

    According to my dictionaries both decrease and reduce are transitive verbs and mean making something less or fewer in numbers, quantity, etc.
    I am stumped.

    Thanks.
     
    newname said:
    Two of the native posters here agree that 'decrease' should be used intransively. However, all dictionaries I have and know of state its transitive use. Longman online dictionary, Macmillian online dictionary, reference.com are among them.

    I have an exercise question:
    He invented a method to .......... liver surgery time from 3 hours to 2 hours.

    According to my dictionaries both decrease and reduce are transitive verbs and mean making something less or fewer in numbers, quantity, etc.
    I am stumped.

    Thanks.
    Click to expand...
    The two native speakers you refer to, Aardvark and me, are British. My dictionaries (all British) imply that "to decrease" can be transitive or intransitive, but this verb sounds odd to me when used transitively.
     
    Last edited:
    I am a native American English speaker. I was looking through the examples and can't see a time when one is used instead of the other. I see them as equally interchangeable, but there may be an example of one sounding better than the other... I would just have to hear it.
     
    I agree that they are interchangeable in US English. "Decrease" used transitively doesn't sound odd to me at all.

    And apparently didn't to Dickens either - one of the classic lines from A Christmas Carol:

    "If they would rather die,'' said Scrooge, "they had better do it, and decrease the surplus population."
     
    Just when I thought this aversion to transitive "decrease" might be just me, I found some support for my position on page 28 of this , where the author says "You cannot decrease a temperature." I do not know what nationality the author is.
     
    See now there's an example of something where I would always say "reduce." I've always heard/ seen written "reduce a temperature." "Decrease the temperature" may be grammatically fine, but it sounds a little strange. Also, from what I've seen in all popular AE literature for parenting, it's referred to reduce (and I work as a translator in a childcare resource and referral non-profit, so I see a lot).
     
    Thank you all,

    So, from all the replies I think I can use either, and which one sounds better is just a matter of preference?


    And my personal thank to sound shift for the link, which says that decrease is like decline. However, in my example it is hard to say whether the operation time went down slowly over a period or it was just a sudden drop from 3 to 2 hours. So either verb is fine here?

    Thank you.
     
    Last edited:
    sound shift said:
    The two native speakers you refer to, Aardvark and me, are British. My dictionaries (all British) imply that "to decrease" can be transitive or intransitive, but this verb sounds odd to me when used transitively.
    Click to expand...

    How about increase? Does it also sound odd when it is used as a transitive verb?
     
    You must log in or register to reply here.
    Back
    Top Bottom