My Grammar and I (Or Should That Be 'Me'?): Old-School Ways to Sharpen Your English

G
ROUCHO
M
AR X
M
AY
I
COMPARE THEE TO A SUMMER’S DAY
? (
OR
, C
OMPARATIVES
)

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Sir, Gerald Burton asks where all the comparative and superlative
adjectives have gone. As far as popular television is concerned they have
all been replaced by one word – fantastic.
L
ETTER IN THE
Telegraph
Comparatives  (which  may  be  adjectives  or  adverbs)  compare  two  things.  We
say that one thing is larger , faster , more lovely and more temperate than another
thing,  or  that  it  runs  more  swiftly  ,  more  elegantly  ,  less  galumphingly  than
another.
The African elephant has larger ears than the Indian elephant.
In Aesop’s fable, the tortoise was steadier than the hare.
Shoplifting is less evil than murder.
Comparative adjectives usually employ the suffix -er , if the original adjective is
short enough for it not to become a mouthful. If it doesn’t sound right to add -er
(beautifuller  ?  temperater  ?  Don’t  think  so),  use  the  modifier  more  :  more
beautiful,  more  temperate  .  And  if  we  want  to  say  that  it  is  less  ugly  or  less
beautiful – that’s how we do it, however short the original adjective is.
*25
Does it sound right? is often a good rule (the posh word is euphony , but does it
sound  right?  will  do  just  fine).  More  big  when  we  mean  bigger  sounds  just  as
silly as beautifuller when we mean more beautiful .
Also, there is the question of ambiguity. The African elephant has more big ears
than the Indian elephant sounds as if the elephants have a collection of ears in
large and small sizes.