Size + increase/decrease

Xavier da Silva

Xavier da Silva

Senior Member
Brazil - In a city in the State of Goiás
Brazilian Portuguese
Hello everyone,

Does the noun "size" + increase/decrease sound natural/correct (context: make something bigger/smaller) in the examples I made below?

a. We need to increase the size of this room. It's too small for us to work here.
b. Please decrease the size of this door. How long do you need to do it? ''Three days.''
c. They're increasing the size of the supermarket. Now they have many more customers.

Thank you in advance!
 
    • They are grammatical, but not what we would normally say.

    a. We need a bigger room.
    b. Please make the door smaller.
    c. They are adding more floor space to the supermarket.
     
    Your sentences are fine grammatically, but a and b are strange examples. It's rare that you can change the size of a room and it's unclear in what way you want the door (or the doorway?) to be smaller.
    c) is fine as it is - except the tenses of the two sentences don't make much sense together.
     
    Last edited:
    Xavier da Silva said:
    I really thought "size" + "increase" and "decrease" was possible.
    Click to expand...
    They are, but it has to be a thing that you can alter the size of. To increase the size of a room you would need to move a wall.
    "We need to increase the size of this room. It's too small for us to work here."
    "OK. I'll get the builders in and have this wall moved back another 3 metres. Of course, you'll have nowhere to work while we're doing the job. Wouldn't it be better to find a bigger room?"

    "We need to increase the size of the Army." :thumbsup:
     
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