Difference between N1はN2より＋Adj and N1よりN2のほうが+Adj

Question

I'm a little stuck at this because I don't really get the difference. What's the difference between:

私は田中さんより若いです
田中さんより私のほうが若いです

Am I saying the same thing but in two different ways?

Thanks in advance!

Answer 1

For sentences like this I find it helps to have a translation of より and ほう. If you treat Xより as 'compared to X' and Yのほう as "Y's side", then you can see how these sentences work.

1. 私は田中さんより若いです
   I, compared to Tanaka, am young -> I am younger than Tanaka.

2. 田中さんより私のほうが若いです
   Compared to Tanaka, my side is young -> I am younger than Tanaka.

Both sentences are grammatical and both mean the same thing.

There is a slight difference though. Sentence structure 2) is a plain statement of fact. But sentence structure 1) requires you to have already established a topic of conversation (i.e. the bit marked by は).

If you were asked "Who is the younger between you and Tanaka?", at this point neither of you is the topic of conversation so using structure 1) would be weird.

If you've already been talking about the person marked by は then structure 1) would be better.

You can also omit the より part if you already know what you're comparing against. So in answer to "Who is the younger between you and Tanaka?", you could just say 私のほうが若いです.