lightning or lightening

In my textbook lies such a sentence.

Mr. Peng performed his lightening speed face changes in front of television cameras when he attempted his record.

Is there any typo here? Doesn't "lightning" make more sense?

Am I right?

Thanks!

Jason

It's a misspelling. A common one.

Lightning = electrical weather phenomenon.
Lightening = the process of making something more light.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by emsr2d2

Lightning = electrical weather phenomenon.
Lightening = the process of making something more light.

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Is "more light" acceptable in BrE as a comparative?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by riquecohen

Is "more light" acceptable in BrE as a comparative?

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Yes. Is it not in AmE? 'Lighter' is far more commonly used, but there's nothing wrong with 'more light'

I chose "more light" rather than "lighter" because the first use that came into my head was for people "lightening" their hair. If the person involved already had fairly light-coloured hair and used a lightening product, their hair would become lighter. However, if their hair was dark brown, brown or mid-brown when they used a lightening product, I would say it made their hair more light (more light than dark perhaps).

Tobe honest, in both those cases, I would just say "She lightened her hair".

The general "rule" in AmE ie to add er to adjectives of one syllable. More light just doesn't sound natural to me and I would mark it wrong on a student's paper.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by emsr2d2

Lightning = electrical weather phenomenon.
Lightening = the process of making something more light.

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So its definitely 'lightning' because its like a figure of speech - meaning that that person 'Mr Peng' was changing his face postures quickly at that moment, please correct me if I'm wrong :oops:

You're right. We do things at "lightning speed".