13 responses so far ↓

• 1 mura // Apr 21, 2009 at 12:45 pm

  interesting example.
  so we can substitute tall for high in:
  333 meters tall and 484 meters tall but not for the superlative forms in this case i.e. we can’t say the second building is the tallest hotel.

  so something can be the tallest without necessarily being the highest!

• 2 admin // Apr 21, 2009 at 1:22 pm

  Hello Mura - good to hear from you

  I think you have almost got it - the ‘almost’ part is a result of me not being clear enough in the example.

  Let’s completely forget the grammar here. Don’t worry about ‘comparatives’, ’superlatives’, etc. It’s a question of the difference in meaning between tall and high.

  Often, there is virtually no difference in meaning between tall and high. For example, you could say:

  “How tall is the Eiffel Tower?” (524 Google hits)
  “How high is the Eiffel Tower?” (812 Google hits)

  In these two cases, there is no obvious difference in meaning between the two adjectives.

  There are situations, however, where we use “tall” for one thing and “high” for another. An obvious example for tall is people (”Robert Pershing Wadlow is the tallest man in medical history”) and an obvious example for high is altitudes (”Located in the mesosphere, noctilucent clouds are the highest in the Earth’s atmosphere”).

  This brings us to the example of the two hotels. The important thing about the second hotel is that only the top 15 floors will be used: It is a question of altitude.

  Sometimes when you look at situations that are similar but just slightly different (such as in the case of the two hotels), you see differences between words that you never thought about before. In this case, the adjective “high” is used to refer to altidude/height. “Tall” is used to refer to the whole structure - from top to bottom.

  So what you said is right: “Something can be tallest without necessarily being the highest.”

• 3 admin // Apr 21, 2009 at 1:27 pm

  Just thought of another example

  In Edinburgh, there is a hill called “Aurthur’s Seat”:
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur%27s_Seat,_Edinburgh

  When I was a little boy, my dad used to take me there. At the top, there is a rock that is famous for being “The highest point in Edinburgh”.

  I used to stand on the rock and say, “I am the highest person in Edinburgh”.

  But of course, although I was the highest person in Edinburgh during those moments, that didn’t mean that I was the tallest. I was only 3 foot and 4 inches.

• 4 Glennie // Apr 22, 2009 at 3:27 pm

  It looks like ‘tall’ and ‘high’ in their superlative forms need to be taught at proficiency level!

  Anyone want to take on the challenge of ‘avoid’ and ‘prevent’? I did…and failed. :-<

• 5 Karenne Sylvester // Apr 22, 2009 at 6:05 pm

  Awfully, awfully, like a course book - watch out that Lindsay doesn’t do a 6 things on blogs that look like coursebooks LOL

  Karenne

• 6 admin // Apr 22, 2009 at 9:05 pm

  Oh Dear Glennie.
  I always try to avoid those words and do everything I can to prevent them from coming up in the classroom.

• 7 Lymaris Fuentes // Apr 24, 2009 at 6:16 am

  I just think that maybe the person that wrote the sentence that said “the highest hotel in the world” used the wrong adjective. For what i have learned since I was little the correct one to use would be “tallest”, but that’s only my opinion. If you can tell me which is the difference and if both of them can be used in a sentence like that one I would greately appreciate it. It would be very nice to use an example like that one in a class.

• 8 admin // Apr 24, 2009 at 12:21 pm

  Hello Lymaris

  There is certainly no mistake here. There is a distinct difference between the “highest” and “tallest” hotels.

  I think this needs a bit more work. Give me a couple of days and I will upload a second posting with some more examples.

  Jamie

• 9 Mel // Apr 26, 2009 at 5:12 am

  Hi Lymaris,

  I stumble across this site while reviewing irregular long vowel sounds with my second grader (high and height). Your question intrigued me, so we used it as a teaching tool for today.

  It seems to me that the word highest is used to compare locations/ positions (in this case elevation) from a fixed point (antonyms: highest, lowest (not shortest)).

  Whereas, the word tallest is used to compare measurements (in this case height) of similar objects (antonyms: tallest, shortest (not lowest)).

  The sentence, “This will be the highest hotel in the world,” is correct, if the roof of the 103rd floor is the highest elevation on earth with a hotel “built” on top of it (for this example the roof is like the earth’s surface or ground). Also, the hotel will only occupy the top 15 stories which is approximately only 12% of the building.

  The world’s tallest hotel, The Rose Tower in Dubai, stands 333 meters and is much taller than the aforementioned “hotel” (we are comparing hotels, not buildings).

  In conclusion, for this sentence, “this will be the highest hotel in the world,” the word tallest cannot be used to describe the hotel. I teach my daughter that these two words (highest and tallest) are not interchangeable. For the word highest we use the words greatest elevation and for the word tallest we use the words greatest height. If there are any flaws in my logic, then please let me know. I hope this helps.

• 10 Giovanna // Apr 26, 2009 at 4:23 pm

  Hi Jamie,
  I’m trying to understand!
  -Statue of Liberty
  From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
  “….The statue is 151 ft (46 m) tall, but with the pedestal and foundation, it is 305 ft (93 m) tall….”
  -National Park Service U.S Department of the
  Interior
  “…At this point the pedestal level is the highest point visitors may access…..”
  Is it so?
  Giovanna

• 11 admin // Apr 28, 2009 at 11:24 am

  Hello Giovana
  Sorry about the delay - been moving around.
  I think you have found a great example here.

  When talking about the statue of Liberty in this way, tall seems to refer to ‘top to bottom’. Perhaps it can be thought of as ‘vertical length’. Mel mentioned this in her comment as well (that’s the one before yours).

  And as you say, in the example you have given, high refers to a point - a specific altitude perhaps (or “locations, fixed positions” as Mel says).

  Thanks for the example. I’ll be referring to it in another posting about the same subject when I have a moment to write.

  Jamie

• 12 Maria Grazia // Sep 14, 2009 at 10:31 pm

  Dear Jamie,
  your lessons are always so interesting…
  Bye!

• 13 Emmanuelle // Sep 24, 2009 at 12:25 pm

  Great !

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