adjectives

[concreteplus]

does anyone know if there are any special rules for adjectives ending in "ic"
verses "cal"

[MikeNewYork]

does anyone know if there are any special rules for adjectives ending in "ic"
verses "cal"

I'm not sure I can formulate anything that apporaches a rule. In some cases, the pairs of adjectives (-ic and -ical) are used interchangeably -- for example phantasmagoric/phantasmagorical. In that case, the use of the words is so infrequent as to not require distinctions in meaning. Why both words exist is a mystery.

On the other hand. there is a significant distinction in the uses of historic/historical. There is some overlap, but "historic" is used for important events in history, while historical is used for anything in history, important or not. Hence, a historical period is any period in the past, but a historic period is one that has some special significance.

On a language site, such as this one, we use the term "grammatical". It has two meanings: of or related to grammar and conforming to the rules of grammar. There is another form of the adjective "grammatic", which has the same meaning. I use the words differently. I use "grammatic" for the first meaning and "grammatical" for the second. I'm not sure that everyone else makes that differentiation, but I find it useful.

Note, however, that with "historic(al), the short form is the more specific; with grammatic(al), the long form is more specific. That is why I think we have something less than a rule here.

[concreteplus]

Thank you . It helped me understand a little bit better. lol


I was Lost!!!!!!

[MikeNewYork]

Thank you . It helped me understand a little bit better. lol


I was Lost!!!!!!

You're very welcome.