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Comparative and superlative ... again

od Hyperboreus, 20 kwietnia 2012

Wpisy: 9

Język: English

Hyperboreus (Pokaż profil) 20 kwietnia 2012, 21:50:28

Forigite

Evildela (Pokaż profil) 20 kwietnia 2012, 22:21:04

I would use "more apt" and "most apt"

razlem (Pokaż profil) 20 kwietnia 2012, 22:49:42

My dictionary says you could use either. I use "more/most apt" myself.

robbkvasnak (Pokaż profil) 20 kwietnia 2012, 22:53:17

Latinate adjectives, which often were adopted from French, use more and most. Anglosaxon adjectives tend to use -er and -est. "Apt" is a Latinate adjective (from the Latin "aptus").
English has two distinct classes of words: Latinate and Anglosaxon. "Irregular" verbs are only to be found among Anglosaxon verbs - the same holds for irregular nouns.

Hyperboreus (Pokaż profil) 20 kwietnia 2012, 23:35:26

Forigite

Chequer (Pokaż profil) 20 kwietnia 2012, 23:46:36

I wonder if it is a personal choice in many instances, based on the way people speak in the area that one grew up.

I would definitely use more/most apt and not apter/aptest.

I am struggling to decide whether I would use viler or more vile in your example. I certainly would use either version of most vile/vilest:

That is the vilest thing you have ever done.
That is the most vile thing that you have ever done. (the 'most' seems to add more weight)

Both sound fine to me and I am tempted to think that although I heartily agree with robbkvasnak's comment, I think things will change as people begin to subtly regularise irregularities over time. Maybe apter/aptest will even end up being the norm.....

I regularly hear people using both in the same sentence "the shirt was more greener than that". While it irks my ears terribly, I do wonder whether it is just a sign of the changing language.

Bruso (Pokaż profil) 21 kwietnia 2012, 01:03:32

Chequer:
I regularly hear people using both in the same sentence "the shirt was more greener than that". While it irks my ears terribly, I do wonder whether it is just a sign of the changing language.
Hmmm. Maybe an Australian thing? I rarely hear this, and only from people whose English is clearly substandard.

But remember Shakespeare wrote "most unkindest cut" so at one time this sort of thing was acceptable literary English.

acdibble (Pokaż profil) 21 kwietnia 2012, 03:27:35

Usually, words with one syllable take "-er" and "-est".

"stupid" comes from Middle French and takes the comparative and superlative endings.

sudanglo (Pokaż profil) 21 kwietnia 2012, 09:32:27

HB, I would also vote for more apt and most apt. I think that in general the rule about which form to use for the comparative and superlative is not too rigidly applied with shorter words - you can find both variants used with some short words. Though with longer words -er and -est sound odd.

Where there is a choice with a shorter word, the more/most forms do tend to lend themselves to a more emphatic usage - which probably comes from -er and -est not being stressed syllables (unless your interlocutor is hard of hearing).

(Fiddling with the colour adjustment on a TV - It's more green now! But when it comes to idioms you have to use a specific form - the grass is greener, murder most foul.)

Here we have yet another demonstration of the difficulties of English for non-natives.

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