Is it grammatical to use an "as...as" comparative construction with a plural noun at its center, or does the title sentence need restructuring?
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Yes, “They're not as good actors as he” seems to be grammatical
I would tentatively suggest that comparisons like this, where the grammatical number of one of the nouns only makes sense for the first compared item, are grammatical in standard English writing, although they may be dispreferred*.
I tried to search through Google Books for examples of these structures, first using the Ngram Viewer with wildcard search to identify the most common nouns in comparisons like "as good * as he."
Unfortunately, there's an added complication, because a sequence like "as good * as he" or "as good a * as they" could also belong to a different structure. For example, the results for "good a chance as they" could come from sentences like "We have as good a chance as they" where two plural items are being compared. In fact, most of the results I found on Ngram for the "good a * as they" sequence seemed to be for sentences of this type.
It looked like there was one that might have the structure we are looking for, "good a man as they."
Searching Google Books for this sequence, I did get one relevant hit:
Pride compelled Dingiri Banda's father, U. Kapuruhamy (B 2:5), to demonstrate to his new affines that he was as good a man as they. (Pul Eliya: A Village in Ceylon, by E. R. Leach)
All the other results were for false hits like "When the majority of the people of France cast their ballots for Napoleon III as president, he was as good a man as they deserved" ("Divinity of the Ballot," by J.E. Rankin, D.D., in The Republic Volume VII). There was one interesting result that showed another kind of number mismatch: "Most fathers try to bring up their sons to be as good a man as they meant to be" (The Complete Book of Zingers, by Croft M. Pentz).
Searching for "as good men as he" we get two valid results:
Bligh, after leaving the Bounty, had considerable difficulty in managing the men who had shared his fate, because they considered themselves "as good men as he" (The Romany Rye: The Gypsy Gentleman, by George Henry Borrow)
and
they thought themselves as good men as he (The Christian in Compleat Armour. Or, A Treatise, of the Saints War Against the Devil; wherein A Discovery is made of that Grand Enemy of God and his People, in his Policies, Power, Seat of his Empire, Wickedness, and chief design he hath against the Saints, by William Gurnall)
(I know, that last one is not exactly modern English; it's from 1669. Still, it's some kind of evidence.)
There are also some valid results for "as good Christians as he":
private men are as good Christians as he (The Montgomery manuscripts, by W. Montgomery)
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it was proposed by thousands who think themselves as good Christians as he is ("English Cathedral Establishments," Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine Volume 34)
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If we were only all of us as good Christians as he? ("Only a Fiddler," by Hans Christian Andersen, translated by Mary Howitt, in "Select Novels" according to Google)
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Indeed they might easily be as good Christians as he : for he had never been christened (The History of England from the Accession of James II, by Thomas Babington Macaulay)
You can search for other nouns (or other adjectives) if you like; I didn't find any valid examples for "as good actors as he," but there are definitely more examples for some other nouns. There aren't a bunch of examples, but the sources generally don't seem to be filled with other grammatical errors, so I at least am going to conclude that this construction is not an error either.
Ways to rephrase (if you want to)
I don't think your question was asking for ways to avoid this structure, but if you want to, you could say something like "They're not as good at acting as he." I was talking to my brother about this, and he pointed out that another way to rephrase the sentence is by using a word like "each," "either" or "neither" that takes singular agreement. So in this case: "Neither of them is as good an actor as he." (Similarly, you could rephrase "they are as good actors as he" to "each of them is as good an actor as he.")
*I was confused about why my spellchecker was flagging dispreferred, so I Googled it. Apparently, this word is not in common use, and the fact that I use it may indicate that I am a "linguists' lackey." If you need an explanation of what it means, see this Language Log post: "Why I disprefer The Dictionary of Disagreeable English to pretty near anything"
herisson
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In your suggested version: "They're not as good at acting as he", to be good at something, does not mean the individuals are actors. Children in school plays can be good at acting, but they are not necessarily actors. – Aug 28 '16 at 10:56
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Doesn't the fact you didn't find any examples of "as good actors as he" suggest the construction is non-idiomatic, and perhaps, awkward sounding to native speakers? – Aug 28 '16 at 11:02
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@Bluewoman: I think it's ambiguous: it depends on what definition of "actor" you are using (a professional one, or a functional one). Articles I've found online seem to often use qualified terms like "student actors" or "teen actors." – herisson Aug 28 '16 at 11:02
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@Bluewoman: there also aren't any examples of "as good actors as they." I suppose this would support your argument that the structure should be "not such good actors as he/they" except there aren't any Google Books results for those either. – herisson Aug 28 '16 at 11:06
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I suspect it has something to do with this: in the structure "X (be) as Y as Z", Y is tightly related to X. That is, the mechanically generated phrase "X (be) Y" should be valid, and should be part of the sense of the original. This requires Y to agree numerically with X, rather than with Z. – Lawrence Sep 02 '16 at 08:55
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The English textbook rule for as ... as with adjectives is: as + ADJ + as
and for comparing noun phrases: not + such + NP + as
- He is (not) as good as me
- He is (not) as good an actor as me
- I am not such a good actor as him
I prefer to use the objective instead of the subject pronoun in the reduced clause (he is). Some might argue that this preference is ungrammatical, or at best informal, but that's how the majority of native speakers speak.
The non-idiomatic sentence, in the question, can be reworded as follows
The actors aren't as good as he/him.
OR
They're not such good actors as he
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1To me, the question seems to be mainly about the mismatch between the grammatical number of "actors" (plural) and "he" (singular): it says "is it grammatical to use an "as...as" comparative construction with a plural noun at its center?" Could you edit your answer to give more explanation of this point? If it is a problem, it seems like it would also apply to your second suggestion, "They're not such good actors as he." – herisson Aug 28 '16 at 08:17
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@suməlic I'm sorry but I don't understand. The answer to your request and the question is demonstrated in the second example. It is also explained in the link. – Aug 28 '16 at 08:19
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There is no "rule" forbidding to compare a plural noun with a singular noun. E.g. My brothers aren't as clever as me – Aug 28 '16 at 08:23
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Thanks for the link, but I cannot find the place where this is discussed. I searched the page for "number," "singular" and "plural" but there weren't any results. The page is a bit long. Can you edit your answer to add a quotation of the relevant passage? It seems to me that the difference between adjective and noun might be relevant. The word "clever" is an adjective, and grammatical number is never expressed on adjectives in English. But the word "actors" is a noun and it is marked for plural grammatical number. – herisson Aug 28 '16 at 08:24
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You can use the plural noun like so: as + many + countable Noun for example, "I have as many smart brothers as he/him" But I realize this does not apply here. I'm sorry, I answered the question as best as I could. – Aug 28 '16 at 08:31
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That's true. But in that case, the plural makes sense for both parties being compared: I have smart brothers, and he has smart brothers. But it seems a predicate like "being good actors" wouldn't make sense applied to one person. We couldn't say "They are good actors, and he is good actors." No need to apologize–you posted an answer, and that's more than I did! I will have to research this further. I'll stop bothering you now :) – herisson Aug 28 '16 at 08:34
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The only thing wrong with
They're not as good actors as he
is that "he", which in speech is nowadays never used, and in writing only by aged pedants.
The normal way to say it is
They're not as good actors as him.
If you want to keep everybody happy, including the aged pedants, you can also say
They're not as good actors as he is.
TonyK
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'I'm not saying your sentence is not grammatical. Indeed, what I would say may be wrong. But I know I would say "They're not so good actors as he." I have no argument to support my use of so in place of as, and I will be happy if someone explains why I'm wrong.
Airymouse
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I would consider both equivalent, except that so good as to me sounds much more American English than as good as, and also more old-fashioned. But I have no more argument than you. – Janus Bahs Jacquet Aug 27 '16 at 23:19
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1@JanusBahsJacquet So good as instead of as good as sounds British and archaic to me :-). I think the problem here is that the construction as
Adj NPas (as good a man as any, as good a piece of pie as I've ever eaten, as good a pie as I've ever eaten) requires a singular count NP. Try it with mass or plural count and it doesn't sound right (as good pie as I've ever eaten, as good pies as I've ever eaten). No reason, just not quite separated from an idiomatic base (probly as good a man as any), and still carrying a subcategorization from the idiom. – John Lawler Aug 27 '16 at 23:48 -
1@JohnLawler In BrE it sounds archaic to me as well, as in 19th-century archaic. It may be a mistaken gut feeling on my part, but it feels less archaic in AmE in my head. (Can you have gut feelings in your head?) – Janus Bahs Jacquet Aug 27 '16 at 23:52
They're worse actors than him. – alwayslearning Aug 27 '16 at 21:25