英语语法：162 Better Versus Best

Grammar Girl here.

Guest-writer Bonnie Trenga will be your hostess with the mostest today, because we’re looking at how to make comparisons using adjectives and adverbs.

Bonnie writes,

When you want to modify a noun, is it OK to stick a “more” or a “most” in front (or a “less” or a “least”)? No, not always. Let’s take a look at adjectives first. Adjectives, such as “tall,” “squeaky,” “careful,” and “extraordinary,” describe nouns. There are two ways to make a comparison with an adjective: you can use “more” or “most” in front of the adjective (for example, "more wonderful"), or you can use the suffixes² “-er” and “-est” on the end of the adjective (for example, "squeakier"). For the most part, which way you choose depends on how many syllables⁴ the adjective has.

Comparisons involving adjectives with one syllable³ or three or more syllables follow clear-cut rules, whereas the situation is different for adjectives with two-syllables.

One-Syllable Adjectives

One-syllable adjectives use the suffixes “-er” or “-est” on the end of the adjective. For example, “tall” has one syllable, so, if you wanted to compare the height of your family members, you might say, “I am taller than my sister, but I’m not the tallest in the family.” It would sound odd to say, “I am more tall than my sister, but I’m not the most tall in the family.”

Irregular One-Syllable Adjectives

There are exceptions for some irregular one-syllable adjectives, such as “good” and “bad.” You say, “better” and “best,” and “worse” and “worst,” not “gooder” and “badder,” and “goodest” and “baddest.” You might encounter “baddest” in colloquial⁵ English, as in “He’s the baddest of the bad,” but I wouldn’t say that in front of your English teacher.

Three-Syllable Adjectives

Adjectives with three or more syllables use “more” or “most” in front of the adjective. For example, with the five-syllable adjective “extraordinary,” you use “more” or “most,” as in “That is the most extraordinary hat I’ve ever seen!” You can’t say, “extraordinariest.” That’s a mouthful.

One style guide did mention that you could use polysyllabic adjectives with an unexpected “-er” or “-est” on the end to create a special effect. Alice from Alice in Wonderland, for example, said, “Curiouser and curiouser” (1).

Two-Syllable Adjectives

Two-syllable adjectives are a bit trickier⁶ than the others we’ve discussed. Or is that "more tricky"? (It’s “trickier.”) Sometimes you have to use the suffixes, other times you have to use “more” or “most,” and in some cases you can use either one.

The adjectives “squeaky” and “careful” have two syllables, so do you say “squeakier” or “more squeaky”? “Carefulest” or “most careful”? As far as “squeaky,” you use the suffixes, as in “The squeakiest wheel gets the grease.” On the other hand, you can’t say, “carefuler” and “carefulest.” You have to say, “more careful” and “most careful.”

When it comes to two-syllable adjectives, it seems a bit arbitrary whether you use the suffixes or the words in front. I did find one rule to help guide you: two-syllable adjectives that end in “-y,” “-ow,” and “-le” can take the suffixes “-er” and “-est” (2). Remember that by thinking they're y-ow-le howl-ey! Y-ow-le. Or better yet, think that they are yowlier and howlier than everything else, so you remember the adjective endings “-y,” “-ow,” and “-le,” and the rule to end them with “-er” or “-est.”

A listener, Ashley, wondered if she should say, “more subtle” or “subtler.” Since “subtle” ends in “-le,” you would use “subtler” and “subtlest.” According to this rule, “funny,” “mellow,” and “gentle” are other examples of two-syllable adjectives that take the suffixes, making the correct choices "funnier," "mellower," and "gentler."

Sometimes, though, no rule will help you determine which way to make a comparison. Some two-syllable adjectives can go both ways. You can say, “commoner” or “more common,” “tranquilest” or “most tranquil,” “stupider” or “more stupid,” and “naivest” or “most naive⁷.”

According to the source that listed these two-way adjectives, “The terminational forms are usually older, and some of them are becoming obsolete” (3), so “tranquilest,” which sounds a bit odd to me and raises a flag in Microsoft Word’s spell checker, is moving out of favor. If you have a two-syllable adjective that doesn’t end in “-y,” “-ow,” or “-le” (it's not yowlier), you’ll need to rely on your ear or your dictionary, and Garner's Modern American Usage states that “if a word ordinarily takes the -er or the -est suffix¹—and that formation sounds more natural—it’s poor style to use the two-word form with more or most” (3).

Comparing Adverbs

So far we’ve talked about adjectives, but adverbs follow the same rules. Adverbs are words that describe adjectives, verbs, or other adverbs.

For example, with the one-syllable adverb “soon,” you add the suffix, as in, “Whoever finishes the chores soonest will earn a prize.” You wouldn’t say, “most soon.”

For adverbs with three or more syllables, such as “comfortably,” you need to say “more comfortably,” not “comfortablier.”

Some two-syllable adverbs, such as “early,” take the suffixes, so you would say, “earlier” and “earliest.” Some others, such as “sadly,” take “more” or most” in front, as in “more sadly” and “most sadly.” If you're unsure, check a dictionary. If the suffix form is allowed, as it is with “earlier,” for example, it will be listed in the dictionary entry.

“Less” and “Least”

The comparisons we’ve been talking about have all involved a greater amount of something. When you’re talking about not as much, you use “less” and “least” in front of adjectives or adverbs with any amount of syllables. For example, you might admit, “I am less athletic⁸ than my best friend” or, if you’re using an adverb, you could lament⁹, “My roommate is the least grammatically oriented person I know.”

That’s all for now, but that’s not the mostest we can say about comparisons. Uh, I mean, that’s not all, so be sure to tune¹⁰ in for part two, coming soon.

 

1 suffix   

n.后缀；vt.添后缀

参考例句：

• We add the suffix "ly" to make the adjective "quick" into the adverb " quickly ".我们在形容词“ quick”后加“ly” 构成副词“quickly”。
• It described the meaning of suffix array and also how to built it.它描述的含义，后缀数组以及如何建立它。

2 suffixes   

n.后缀，词尾( suffix的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Many domain name suffixes have failed to gain general popularity. 很多域名后缀没有获得一般的通用性。 来自互联网
• For example, consider the use of prefixes and suffixes. 例如，那前缀和后缀的使用来说。 来自互联网

3 syllable   

n.音节；vt.分音节

参考例句：

• You put too much emphasis on the last syllable.你把最后一个音节读得太重。
• The stress on the last syllable is light.最后一个音节是轻音节。

4 syllables   

n.音节( syllable的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• a word with two syllables 双音节单词
• 'No. But I'll swear it was a name of two syllables.' “想不起。不过我可以发誓，它有两个音节。” 来自英汉文学 - 双城记

5 colloquial   

adj.口语的，会话的

参考例句：

• It's hard to understand the colloquial idioms of a foreign language.外语里的口头习语很难懂。
• They have little acquaintance with colloquial English. 他们对英语会话几乎一窍不通。

6 trickier   

adj.狡猾的( tricky的比较级 )；（形势、工作等）复杂的；机警的；微妙的

参考例句：

• This is the general rule, but some cases are trickier than others. 以上是一般规则，但某些案例会比别的案例更为棘手。 来自互联网
• The lower the numbers go, the trickier the problems get. 武器的数量越低，问题就越复杂。 来自互联网

7 naive   

adj.幼稚的，轻信的；天真的

参考例句：

• It's naive of you to believe he'll do what he says.相信他会言行一致，你未免太单纯了。
• Don't be naive.The matter is not so simple.你别傻乎乎的。事情没有那么简单。

8 athletic   

adj.擅长运动的，强健的；活跃的，体格健壮的

参考例句：

• This area has been marked off for athletic practice.这块地方被划出来供体育训练之用。
• He is an athletic star.他是一个运动明星。

9 lament   

n.悲叹，悔恨，恸哭；v.哀悼，悔恨，悲叹

参考例句：

• Her face showed lament.她的脸上露出悲伤的样子。
• We lament the dead.我们哀悼死者。

10 tune   

n.调子；和谐，协调；v.调音，调节，调整

参考例句：

• He'd written a tune,and played it to us on the piano.他写了一段曲子，并在钢琴上弹给我们听。
• The boy beat out a tune on a tin can.那男孩在易拉罐上敲出一首曲子。