increase/expand the number of

1. I want to expand our nuclear plants. -- means that you want to make the existing plants bigger in some way, such as by increasing capacity, adding additional infrastructure, etc. Some people might understand this expansion to also include building new plants, but to me it doesn't really mean that.

2. I want to increase our nuclear plants. -- not good English.

3. I want to increase the number of our nuclear plants -- means that you want to build new plants.

4. I want to expand the number of our nuclear plants. -- would be understood to mean the same as #3, but IMO is not very good English. You can't really "expand" a number.

You can expand our nuclear capacity (context = nuclear power), or expand our nuclear power generation, or expand/increase the proliferation of nuclear power plants..

  - A.

Philip

This reminds me of the relatively new usage of 'grow', which bothers me no end.  But it's in the mainstream now, so I have to accept it.  "If you want to grow your business, you'll do such-and-such."

Hi Philip,

How is this so different from "I can't seem to grow tomatoes."?  They're both transitive, as opposed to "I can't seem to make my tomatoes (to) grow," (intransitive) or, "My tomatoes are growing like weeds," or, "my business is growing by leaps and bounds."

Actually, I know what you mean.  It seems to be a synonym for "expand," but I can't get a handle on it.  How is it different?

Best wishes,  - A.

Edit.  Maybe I'm beginning to see.  It's really a different meaning of "to grow."  "This year I want to grow some tomatoes."   It really means "to plant and cultivate," rather than "to enlarge them."