Mori
Member
- Joined
- Mar 31, 2008
- Location
- Isfahan
- Member Type
- English Teacher
- Native Language
- Persian
- Home Country
- Iran
- Current Location
- Iran
Can we use "less" with short adjectives?
We use less with longer adjectives (interesting, beautiful, complicated), but we don’t normally use less with short adjectives of one syllable (big, good, high, small). Instead we use not as … as …, or not so … as … Not as is more common than not so:
This new laptop is not as fast as my old one. I’m sorry I bought it now. (preferred to is less fast than my old one.)
Ronald Carter et al., English Grammar Today, p. 132
We use less with both long and short adjectives.
It's more expensive. It's less cheap.
John Eastwood, Oxford Learner's Grammar: Grammar Finder, p. 287
We use less with longer adjectives (interesting, beautiful, complicated), but we don’t normally use less with short adjectives of one syllable (big, good, high, small). Instead we use not as … as …, or not so … as … Not as is more common than not so:
This new laptop is not as fast as my old one. I’m sorry I bought it now. (preferred to is less fast than my old one.)
Ronald Carter et al., English Grammar Today, p. 132
We use less with both long and short adjectives.
It's more expensive. It's less cheap.
John Eastwood, Oxford Learner's Grammar: Grammar Finder, p. 287