[Grammar] comparative and superlative form

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masterding

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I often see sentences like "she is more pretty ,more cute, more free and so on ",which seem grammatically wrong ,but many natives use it this way,I wonder if the rules of comparative and superlative form are less strict in modern english?

thanks.
 

TheParser

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I often see sentences like "she is more pretty ,more cute, more free and so on ",which seem grammatically wrong ,but many natives use it this way,I wonder if the rules of comparative and superlative form are less strict in modern english?

thanks.


***** NOT A TEACHER *****


Masterding,


You have brought up an excellent point.

(1) Mesdames Celce-Murcia and Larsen-Freeman in their The Grammar Book

remind us that:

the basic form of the comparative is more and the

-er forms are surface lexical manifestations of

more + adjective/adverb.

If I understand correctly what those scholars wrote,

more is always theoretically "correct," but many times

idiom (the way most natives speak) requires or prefers the

-er form. (For example -- this is I speaking, not those

two scholars -- if you say "This is more good," that is not

"bad" English, but native speakers have decided that in this

case, "This is better" should be used.)

(2) Remember, too, that sometimes you have a choice.

The particular writer may prefer the sound of either more

or -er.

Tom is politer than Martha.

Tom is more polite than Martha. (Quite possibly, this sentence

might seem more formal and elegant than the other sentence.)

(3) And remember that Mr. Michael Swan in his Practical English

Usage reminds us that occasionally we must use more:

He is more lazy than stupid.

(English "ears" will not accept: He is lazier than stupid.)


Thank you & have a nice day
 
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