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"I could not afford a bicycle much less a car."

I wanna know what does this word "much less " mean ?

Lily Andrew
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  • It's a comparator used to suggest that one item or situation is out of reach, usually financially. – Robusto Jan 23 '17 at 20:06
  • Welcome to EL&U. One of the expectations of StackExchange is that you have attempted to answer this question on your own; for example, did you try to look up much less in a dictionary? Please take the site [tour] and review the [help] for additional guidance. – choster Jan 23 '17 at 21:13

1 Answers1

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From a native speaker:

Let's say you have a 20% chance of affording a bicycle, and only a 1% chance for a car. Since your chance of the car is much less than your chance of the bicycle, you say "I could not afford a bicycle, much less a car."

As in a good part of American English, the sentence compresses a longer thought that the reader or listener will understand: "I could not afford a bicycle, and certainly there is much less chance I could afford a car."

Yosef Baskin
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    +1 for the first paragraph, but you ought to know that this is not something unique to "American" English. – WS2 Jan 23 '17 at 22:24