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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.
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2012-04-23T22:01:49.080
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2012-04-24T13:06:40.920
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grammar meaning particle-より
Problem understanding a sentence
Since the question seems to be the meaning of より I will respond as such.

より + an adjective simply means "more (than)".

To use your example, 「トムは私より高い」 means "Tom is taller than me".

However you can also something like this 「トムはより高い」 meaning simply "Tom is
taller".
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2012-04-23T22:28:17.957
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I'm not sure where you're confused, because you broke down the translations
correctly.

Just think of it this way.

> トムは身長がたかいです → Tom is tall

`私より` means "more than I", so when you add it in to the sentence, you get
something more literally like "Tom is tall more than I". And it's easy to see
that that is equivalent to "Tom is taller than I am."
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2012-04-23T22:31:45.000
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Here is another breakdown:

トムは私より身長が高いです

Tom is トムは (です)

more than me 私より

height is tall 身長が高い (です)

Tom is more than me tall.

Tom is taller than me.

Tom is taller than I.

Please note that while my breakdown may imply that は and が mean "is", they do
not. These word do not translate directly into english.

You can also try and understand it by translating より as less:

Tom is トムは (です)

I less 私より

tall height 身長が高い

Tom is I less tall height.

or

Tom is _me less_ tall height.
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2012-04-24T01:48:13.917
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2012-04-24T01:48:13.917
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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"
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2012-04-24T02:17:05.987
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