ESL General English Grammar Questions

Re: to make matters worse

Anonymous — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 10:20:48 GMT

Hi Mr Wordy,

Many thanks!

Re: to make matters worse

Mr Wordy — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 21:54:02 GMT

"to make matters worse" is not exactly wrong at the end of a sentence, but to me it's much more natural at the beginning.

"what's worse" does not work at the end of a sentence.

Re: to make matters worse

Anonymous — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 20:51:50 GMT

Hi Mr Wordy,

Thank you very much for your help. Can I put 'to make matters worse' and 'what's worse' at the end of the sentence like

My house has termites. The pipes leak, to make matters worse/what's worse.

Thanks.

Re: to make matters worse

Mr Wordy — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 20:00:10 GMT

Yes, you can.

"What's worse" means that the leaky pipes are a bigger problem than the termites, while "To make matters worse" just means that the leaky pipes compound the problems, rather than necessarily being a bigger problem individually.

Otherwise, the only difference is that the contraction in "What's worse" makes it more conversational/informal, and less appropriate in formal writing. "What is worse" is, to me, OK in all types of writing.

to make matters worse

Anonymous — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 19:20:27 GMT

Hi,

My house has termites. To make matters worse, the pipes leak.

Can I use 'what's worse' instead of 'to make matters worse' here?
Is there any difference between them?

Thanks.