English Grammar

[bhg481]

A family comprises 3 boys. Let's call them Fred, Jim and Bert, born in that order.
It's obvious that Fred is Jim's older brother and Bert is Jim's younger brother.
Is Jim Fred's older brother (on the grounds that he's the older of Fred's two brothers) or is he Fred's younger brother (on the grounds that he's younger than Fred)?

[Tilly2]

Fred is the eldest, Jim is the middle one and Bert is the youngest.

Other than that, I'm not sure what you're asking.

[Togo]

Is it possible that Jim may self identify as Fred's younger sister and Bert's older sister. The times they are a changin.

[Tilly2]

:-)

[bhg481]

Tilly - would Fred refer to Jim as his older brother (because he's the older of his two brothers) or his younger brother (because he's younger than him)?

[perseverer]

Older and younger are comparatives so can only be applied to the pair you are comparing. Jim is Fred's younger brother.

[Tilly2]

Fred would refer to Jim and Bert as his younger brothers.

[Togo]

I used to call my younger brothers little gits. ⊙_⊙

[Tilly2]

I am an only child. No gits in my family...

[Old_Geezer]

Both. Although Fred is Jim's older brother due to the fact he's the one older than Jim, anyway, not just because he is older than Fred.

[bhg481]

So am I, so this is purely a semantics question.

I suppose Fred could call Jim his older younger brother and Bert his younger younger brother.

[jno]

a younger younger brother is a youngest brother

[Old_Geezer]

>:-(

... older than Bert !

[bhg481]

jno - No - youngest can only apply to three or more.

[Tilly2]

I'm off to walk the dog and clear my head.

[bhg481]

Tilly - good idea; it's times like this I wish I had a dog.

[masterchef]

Triplets?

[Tuvok]

Jim is middle brother and Bert is baby brother

[Vagus]

‘He’s the older of my two younger brothers’