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Unnecessary more | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| beano Diglot Senior Member United KingdomRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4432 days ago 1049 posts - 2152 votes  Speaks: English*, German Studies: Russian, Serbian, Hungarian | Message 1 of 17 27 January 2014 at 7:45pm | IP Logged | ||
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I've noticed that quite a few native English speakers (in the UK) sometimes insert the word "more" before an
adjective that itself is already in the comparative form. Examples would be "this diet is more healthier" or "the new teacher was more stricter than the last one" I would class these as mistakes (or at best, a tautology) but more than that, the type of mistake that a native sometimes slips into, perhaps when speaking in a mildly stressful situation. There seems to be mistakes that natives almost never make (but learners do) and others that are commonly heard among the native population but perhaps less so among non-natives, because they have had a rule actively hammered into them. Edited by beano on 27 January 2014 at 7:48pm 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Chung Diglot Senior Member Joined 6966 days ago 4228 posts - 8259 votes 20 sounds Speaks: English*, French Studies: Polish, Slovak, Uzbek, Turkish, Korean, Finnish | Message 2 of 17 27 January 2014 at 8:00pm | IP Logged | ||
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This kind of tautology reminds me of this.
I do generally get annoyed by tautologies since it seems that they're used in prose without any thought by the user for how odd or even pompous they come off. They also remind me of when Jim Carrey once said that constantly talking isn't necessarily communicating. I wince or gnash my teeth at wordiness or use of elements that show empty precision or an attempt by the user to show erudition. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| nicozerpa Triglot Senior Member Argentina Joined 4136 days ago 182 posts - 315 votes Speaks: Spanish*, Portuguese, English Studies: Italian, German | Message 3 of 17 27 January 2014 at 8:19pm | IP Logged | ||
Exactly. For example, when I learned the comparative form at school, our teacher taught us the "more + adjective" form immediately after the "adjetive+er" form. Mistakes in Spanish could be classified into these two groups too, particularly with regards to spelling rules. In this language, there are a group of consonants with the same sounds (such as B and V, L and LL, or S, C and Z in Latin America) and a silent letter (the H), and some native speakers uses them wrong. For example, I've read mispelled words like "conosco" (it means "I know", and the correct spelling is "conozco") or "llendo" (meaning: "Going", Correct Spelling: " yendo") a lot of times. But most non-natives almost never make this kind of errors, probably because most of them learn vocabulary by reading and writing. BTW, I've never seen a post more better than this one! ;) Edited by nicozerpa on 27 January 2014 at 8:22pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| geoffw Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 4498 days ago 1134 posts - 1865 votes Speaks: English*, German, Yiddish Studies: Modern Hebrew, French, Dutch, Italian, Russian | Message 4 of 17 27 January 2014 at 10:27pm | IP Logged | ||
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If this is common in the US, I haven't noticed it. I still vividly remember an incident
back in probably 10th grade where a girl (native English-speaker) in our class said something like "more better," and was teased mercilessly for it. On the other hand, the phrase "most bestest" actually sounds more familiar to me as something one would expect to hear from a very small child who, as children naturally do, makes up words according to assimilated templates, not knowing the exceptional circumstances in which those templates do not apply. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Fuenf_Katzen Diglot Senior Member United States notjustajd.wordpress Joined 4179 days ago 337 posts - 476 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Polish, Ukrainian, Afrikaans | Message 5 of 17 28 January 2014 at 4:53am | IP Logged | ||
I've heard this one a few times, usually in the context of something being exaggerated. I don't know how to explain it, but usually people "know" that it isn't "correct" but will use it for emphasis. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| 1e4e6 Octoglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4100 days ago 1013 posts - 1588 votes Speaks: English*, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Norwegian, Dutch, Swedish, Italian Studies: German, Danish, Russian, Catalan | Message 6 of 17 28 January 2014 at 5:01am | IP Logged | ||
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Once in primary school, in the first years, I remember someone saying, "This is most
better" which probably is incorrect, but then if I reflect and think thereabout, it could probably mean that out of a group of various options that are considered "better", the "most better" is the best option of the group classed as "better". For example, with a choice of three record players wherein out of the group lies a broken record player (worst) and a completely functioning one (best), one can play fine but will get stuck randomly, one can play the whole record but will repeat various times, and one can play the record completely but skips one second out of every song, the latter could be classified as the "most better". Either that or he simply made a grammatical blunder. Edited by 1e4e6 on 28 January 2014 at 5:03am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| geoffw Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 4498 days ago 1134 posts - 1865 votes Speaks: English*, German, Yiddish Studies: Modern Hebrew, French, Dutch, Italian, Russian | Message 7 of 17 28 January 2014 at 5:22am | IP Logged | ||
Doesn't the word "most" have another, less common meaning along the lines of "quite," "rather," particularly," etc.? For example, in the phrase "murder most foul," it's arguably not that there are things being compared and we're identifying the most foul of the group. No idea if that actually was intended in your case, though. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Mooby Senior Member Scotland Joined 5915 days ago 707 posts - 1219 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Polish | Message 8 of 17 28 January 2014 at 9:44am | IP Logged | ||
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Perhaps we all know this, but until recently I didn't appreciate the difference between the two systems of English comparatives:
1. -er / -est Example: cold > colder > coldest (usually single syllable adjectives) 2. more / most Example: expensive > more expensive > most expensive (used with adjectives of 2 or more syllables). The subject came up 2 weeks ago when one of my Polish friends used the 'more ---' comparative incorrectly, and we had to dig into the grammar to discover the principles. As a native English speaker, I know how grammar works, but not always why. Edited by Mooby on 28 January 2014 at 10:22am 1 person has voted this message useful |
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