فالمشبه إما مذكور أو محذوف، وعلى التقديرين فوجه الشبه إما مذكور أو محذوف، وعلى التقديرين فالأداة إما مذكورة أو محذوفة تصير ثمانية
The subject may be mentioned or omitted; in either case the shared respect may be mentioned or omitted; in each of these cases the particle may be mentioned or omitted, yielding eight forms.
Ask three separate questions:
1. Is the subject expressed, or inferred from context?
2. Is the shared feature stated or left implicit?
3. Is the comparison particle expressed or omitted?
Each question has two answers; 2 × 2 × 2 = 8. The comparison term is excluded from this calculation because it is retained throughout.