Notre génération doit utiliser ________ la précédente.

Question

In the above sentence, why is the correct answer "moins d'énergie que" and not "moins d'énergie que de"?  I added the "de" based on this rule: "When expressing there are more/fewer/as many-much [thing/s] than/as [other thing/s], you need to add de after que".

Accepted Answer

Hi T,
In this example, the 'de' is not needed as it means -
Notre génération doit utiliser moins d'énergie que (ne l'a fait) la géneration précédente.
But if you said -
Notre génération doit utiliser moins de gazole que d'essence.
Here the 'de' is required.
moins de ... que de ...
I hope this is clearer.

Answer

This is a case of have/use 'less (things) than', rather than 'less of this than that' - each generation has to use less energy than the one preceding. Therefore it fits the moins de ... que, rather than moins de ... que de context.