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Mein Körper schmerzt höher als bei anderen Menschen.

My body pains higher than other people.

Diese Schokolade ist süßer als andere Pralinen.

This Chocolate is sweeter than other chocolates.

While using comparative "als" in these two examples, why do we use "bei" preposition in the first example? Are we supposed to use "bei" in comparative sentences only for "other people"?

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  • Neither the German sentences nor the English ones are (logically) correct.
    – Björn Friedrich
    Commented Nov 4, 2020 at 14:15

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No, bei can only come from the context, not due to people used as comparison.

Ich laufe schneller als andere. (no bei)

But

Bei mir wirken Diäten schlechter als bei anderen.

Your first example is quite unidiomatic, since Schmerz would be more likely combined with stärker, intensiver, possibly heftiger; Körper is also too unspecific for such a clear perception. A distributed pain would possibly be translated as Gliederschmerzen

After having heads clashed with a colleague one could possibly say:

Mein Kopf schmerzt stärker als deiner.

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    In Mein Körper schmerzt höher als bei anderen Menschen you're comparing pains, but with out the bei you're comparing your pain with people and the result is nonsense. You might be able to get rid of the bei though the magic of ellipsis, but you'd have to use the genitive, something like Mein Körper schmerzt mehr als (der Körper) anderer Menschen. (Maybe? The point is that for ellipsis to work you have to make the constructions parallel so that the listener knows where to put the implied element.)
    – RDBury
    Commented Nov 4, 2020 at 15:37
  • @RDBury Well, you could always say mein Körper schmerzt mehr als der anderer Menschen and had formed a perfect sentence without having the receiver stumble...
    – tofro
    Commented Nov 4, 2020 at 16:35

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