Problem understanding a sentence


The sentence トムは私より身長が高いです。 means "Tom is taller than I ~~me~~." but I'm
trying to find the meaning of each word in order to understand the japanese
sentence better. Here is what I have so far:

トムは(Tom is topic), 私(I, me), より(less than or greater than?), 身長が(height of
body), 高いです(is tall).

So I am having trouble making sense of how the words and particles relate to
the sentence.




I think your problem is with `より` rather than all of the sentence. `より` does
not indicate more or less than something. `より` introduces a **standard of
comparison**. You may think of it as "from" or "with respect to".

Breaking it down:

  * `トムは` \- Tom (as the topic)

  * `私より` \- I (as the standard of comparison)

  * `身長が` \- stature (subject)

  * `高い` \- tall

  * `です` \- is (copula)

* * *

Let's make a simpler sentence:

  * トムは身長が高いです。:

> Literally: "As for Tom, stature is tall"
>
> Naturally: "Tom is tall"

Now let's add `私より` into the mix:

  * トムは **私より** 身長が高いです。:

> Literally: "As for Tom, with me(私) as a standard of comparison(より), his
> stature is tall"
>
> Naturally: "Tom is tall **er** than I"




I think your problem is with `より` rather than all of the sentence. `より` does
not indicate more or less than something. `より` introduces a **standard of
comparison**. You may think of it as "from" or "with respect to".

Breaking it down:

  * `トムは` \- Tom (as the topic)

  * `私より` \- I (as the standard of comparison)

  * `身長が` \- stature (subject)

  * `高い` \- tall

  * `です` \- is (copula)

* * *

Let's make a simpler sentence:

  * トムは身長が高いです。:

> Literally: "As for Tom, stature is tall"
>
> Naturally: "Tom is tall"

Now let's add `私より` into the mix:

  * トムは **私より** 身長が高いです。:

> Literally: "As for Tom, with me(私) as a standard of comparison(より), his
> stature is tall"
>
> Naturally: "Tom is tall **er** than I"

