Today there are more customers than there were yesterday.

[Matthew Wai]

This year more students passed the exam than last year.
Nowadays fewer people use beepers than they did in the past.
Nowadays mobile phones are more than they were in the past.
Today there are more customers than there were yesterday.


Are they grammatical?

 

[Roman55]

I am not a teacher.

I think the first one would be acceptable to some people, but I would change it.
"This year more students passed the exam than did last year."

The second one is wrong as it stands. You can say "than they did..." if you change the beginning, "Nowadays, people use beepers less than they did in the past."
Otherwise, "Nowadays fewer people use beepers than did in the past."

The last two are grammatically OK.

 

[MikeNewYork]

I would not accept #3. It needs another word, in my opinion.

Nowadays mobile phones are more common/popular than they were in the past.
Nowadays mobile phones are used more than they were in the past.

 

[Roman55]

I am not a teacher.

In the past mobile phones were just phones. Now they have many other functions and can be considered to be more than they were in the past.

 

[Matthew Wai]

The second one is wrong as it stands.

Nowadays fewer people use beepers than before.

Is it OK?

 

[Roman55]

I am not a teacher.

Since fewer people than before use beepers, I'd have to say, yes.

 

[emsr2d2]

If you keep the periods of time you are comparing as close as possible to each other, you can avoid confusion. In addition, if you do that, you don't need to add extra words like "did" or "there were".

More students passed the exam this year than last year.
There are more mobile phones these days than in the past.
There are more customers today than yesterday.