Comparatives and Superlatives of Adjectives

What I Am Getting At
     The other day, I was complaining to my mom and sister about one of my classes and the quiz questions I was having to answer.  Somewhere in this complain-fest, this happened:

                             Me: "I swear, the questions keep getting stupider and stupider!" 

                             My sister: "'Stupider'? This coming from the English major?"

                             Me: "Uh...yes, stupider."

                             My mom: "Shouldn't it be 'more stupid'?"

                             Me: "Uhh..."

I honestly had no idea how to answer this question! So, for your benefit (and my own!) this post is all about the comparatives and superlatives of adjectives (: Hopefully by the end we will all know which is the correct form: "stupider" or "more stupid"!

<image from Those English Skills blog>

Definitions

     According to the Oxford English Dictionary (online): 

• a comparative develops a relation in quality between to things, though not the highest quality, 

• a superlative deals with the highest quality of comparison between two things.  

While these definitions are pretty vague, GrammarGirl has come to the rescue! In the article "Comparatives Vs. Superlatives", she elaborates enough for us to get the bigger picture. Here are the definitions/explanations she gives:  

• "When you compare two items, you’re using what’s called a comparative, so you use “more” before the adjective or the suffix “-er” on the end of it. You can remember that comparatives are for two thing because “comparative” has the sound “pair” in it and a pair is always two things. It's not spelled like “pair” but it sounds like pair."

• "When you compare three or more items, you’re using a superlative, so you use “most” or the suffix “-est.” You can remember that superlatives are for more than two things because “superlative” has the word “super” in it and when you want a whole bunch of something, you supersize it."

Make more sense? I sure thought so! But, there is still the problem of how we make the correct form of the comparative and superlative. There are a few little rules--or rather guidelines since the English language is ALWAYS breaking its own rules--to help us along the way.

<image from the Study English Blog>

<image from the Study English Blog>

5 Guidelines (from Oxford Dictionary)

1. Adjectives that have one syllable: add -er for the comparative and -est for the superlative
2. Adjectives that have one syllable and end in "e": add -r for the comparative and -st for the superlative
3. Adjectives that have two syllables: the form depends on the adjective. Some you can simply add -r/-er for the comparative and -st/-est for the superlative, while for others you will need to add 'more' or 'most', respectively.  To make things even more confusing, there are also words that can be formed both ways.
4. Adjectives that have three or more syllables: add 'more' for the comparative and 'more' for the superlative.
5. Adjectives that change their spelling: the form here depends on the adjective

• one-syllable ending in a single consonant: double the consonant and add -er for the comparative and -est for the superlative
• ending in y: change the 'y' to 'i' and add -er for the comparative and -est for the superlative
• irregulars: these are words that you simply have to learn and memorize

Application

     I cannot give you an example of every possible adjective, but I can share a few.

For starters, here is a short list from a teacher's resource website called K12 Reader:

Regular, Comparative, Superlative

sweet, sweeter, sweetest

angry, angrier, angriest

bright, brighter, brightest

calm, calmer, calmest

cold, colder, coldest

cool, cooler, coolest

curly, curlier, curliest

early, earlier, earliest

rich, richer, richest

lovely, lovelier, loveliest

smart, smarter, smartest

simple, simpler, simplest

famous, more famous, most famous

immense, more immense, most immense

long, longer, longest

perfect, more perfect, most perfect

quick, quicker, quickest

thin, thinner, thinnest

Here is a list of comparative and superlative adjectives that have irregular forms (from YourDictionary.com):

bad, worse, worst

good, better, best

far, farther, farthest

late, latter, last (order)

little, less, least

much, more, most

some, more, most

many, more, most

     In the end, if you are really having difficulty figuring out the correct form, look it up; many resources are available to us for this purpose (though I recommend a dictionary just to be safe).

<image from slideshare.net>

To answer my original dilemma regarding the comparative of 'stupid', the correct form according to Oxford Dictionary and Dictionary.com is "stupider" (and the superlative is "stupidest").  

Hope this information is helpful! Let me know what you think,

Amanda

Watch Your Verbage!

What I Am Getting At
     Verb tense basically tells the time of whatever you are talking about--what happened in the past, what is happening in the present, and what will happen in the future. Being consistent in verb tense is key to your audience's ability to understand what you are saying. In order for this to happen, you need at least a basic understanding of the tenses and their purposes in the English language.
    For this post I, again, decided to share a short list of resources. Each deals in some way with verb tense.  Hopefully by the end, you will know how to recognize the different tenses and ultimately avoid swapping tenses within your writing(s). And if this is not the case, at least, you will know where to look when you need help (:

<comic courtesy of Bitstrips.com>

Verb Tense and Its Consistency

• Grammar-Monster's article "Verb Tense"
• This page defines verb tense and gives some basic examples.  What I like most about this one is that a list of all of the tenses is included which provides links to pages speaking strictly about the tense you may want to know more about.  

• Purdue OWL's page about "Verb Tense Consistency"
• Purdue's Online Writing Lab (OWL) has a TON of information about verbs in general. The link I have shared is simply the rules about verb consistency.  If you are having trouble with subject verb agreement or understanding which tense to use, several other links are available for your perusal (:

<image courtesy of easypacelearning.com> 

• Grammar Girl's articles "Is It Okay To Switch Verb Tenses?" and "Mixing Verb Tenses"
• These two articles are related in that they both deal with verb tense, but they are different in what aspect they cover.  The first talks purely about the rules for switching tenses within a sentence and when it is and is not good to do so.  The latter covers a couple of the more confusing tenses and explains the difference between them.  Each includes example of the correct and incorrect ways to use them.
  
• University of Ottawa, Canada, has a page about "Using Verbs" in their Writing Center
• This page holds information about verbs in general. The different tabs are all helpful (depending on what you are wanting help with, of course).
  
• Handout-style page from Towson University about tense consistency
• This one gives straightforward demonstrations for the use of tense and when to change and not change the tense.  It is a little lengthy, but well done. 

<image from FlatWorldKnowledge>

For Your Information

• short quiz to test your knowledge of the tenses from Grammar-Monster
• article in the Huffington Post "The Art of Using Correct Verb Tenses in Your Writing" gives some great examples of the different verb tenses

I hope these pages are able to answer any question you may have, but if not, I am always available to help!!

Amanda

Spell Check, Please!

What I Am Getting At
     So far, I have talked and talked about some basics of writing, and I know some of my posts have been long-winded, so today I am going to do something just a little different (:
     Most everyone is familiar with the AutoCorrect Fails, right?  Well, this post is somewhat dedicated to those fails, but mostly to the avoiding of such errors.

Here are a few of the listed favorites from RantChic:

No lie, I can't stop myself from laughing at these things! 

Now that we have all giggled our brains out, I'll get to my point: Spell check is SUPER important in everything, even the basic text to a friend.  Unfortunately, we sometimes run into problems like with the AutoCorrect function--which is great when it doesn't happen to us of course, but when it does...well, that's a different story.  We also run into instances where the spellcheck doesn't catch our typos.

Personal Application
     Unfortunately, I am not familiar with any spellcheck program other than Microsoft's, so forgive me for my lack of knowledge about other programs! But in my experience with Microsoft, I have run across a few different problems.  Let me share a few I ran into when writing my latest essay (highlighted in the screenshots) :/

This first screenshot has two separate errors.  The first highlighted word should have been "for" rather than "four"--four quotes are not falling, I promise!  The second highlight, fortunately, shows a catch made by the spellcheck telling us that I used the wrong word--should be "their" instead.

This second screenshot touches on two more errors.  They both deal with simple typing errors but they affect what I meant to say.  The first was supposed to say "in" and the second "are".  Here the spelling is fine as "on" and "ate" are real words, but the grammar is affected since the two do not fit with my purpose.

These are simple and somewhat silly examples, but can you see what I am getting at? The AutoCorrect fails are hilarious and one simple mistake in a paper should not lose you too much credit.  But...what if your paper was filled with these little mistakes? or what if the mistake was the status of an AutoCorrect fail?  In the end, these 'little' mistakes can make you lose credibility as a writer or as an 'expert' on your chosen topic.

The Main Point
     So, my plug for today is this: double check, triple check, and quadruple check if you have to.  This is an important step especially when you have a term paper or some big assignments or a work project or whatever.  We look a little silly when we misspell a simple word, even when it is not our fault.  I may not have answers for a "program fix", but in my opinion, it is the writer that needs to take responsibility for their work--we can't blame the computer for everything, right?

Hopefully, we will never have to see our own AutoCorrect Fails published for the world to see (:

Amanda

Commas, Commas, and More Commas

What I Am Getting At
     Last time I gave you guys several resources talking about the uses of apostrophes.  What is more fitting than to now talk about commas??
    Commas are both overused and underused.  Unfortunately, in writing, a comma can make all the difference:

Do you see what I mean?? If we leave out the commas, we come up with something completely different than what was intended...unless of course you like the idea of something that eats kids or that Rachel Ray cooks her family and her dog...For the most part, however, I do not think this is the case (:
     There are many ways to use a comma. For example, we use commas when we join sentences with conjunctions, when we create lists, or when we use dependent clauses in a sentence.  There are other times to use commas, but we will focus on these three uses for this post.
    Again, I do not think I could do justice to what others have already said before me on this subject, but I hope to make a list of resources that will help you in your quest to conquer commas!

When Joining Sentences with Conjunctions

• Grammar-monster demonstrates using commas to join independent clauses.  He gives examples of the right way as well as the wrong way.
• When joining sentences, beware of "comma splices".  If you want to connect your sentences with a comma, you need to use a conjunction as well.
• GrammarGirl has a neat little post about comma splices.  Not only does she show how to use a comma correctly when joining sentences, she also gives you an alternative to using commas--a great way to avoid the horror of comma splicing!

When Creating Lists

• Grammar-monster relates that lists only need commas when there are three or more items being listed. He also defines and demonstrates when and where to use the Oxford Comma (a.k.a. Serial Comma).
• Get It Write shows us how the serial comma would be used in a sentence and demonstrates how it could be used to avoid confusion when listing items.

When Adding Dependent Clauses Onto a Sentence

• Towson University's Online Writing Support has a page defining dependent clauses.  While this is not strictly related to commas, by going through the examples, you can get a pretty good idea about when to use and when not to use a comma in relation to the clause.

For Your Information

• Purdue OWL has an "Extended Rules for Using Commas" page that is full of helpful tips.
• Grammarbook lists 21 rules for comma usage and has a quiz that allows you to test your knowledge.

Hopefully these resources are helpful! Let me know what you think (:

Amanda

Say "No!" to Apostrophe Catastrophe

What I Am Getting At

     Apostrophes are very much overused by anyone and everyone (and, yes, this is a HUGE pet peeve of mine!)  Just as in my last post, I cannot say it as well as some others, but I hope that what sources I bring to your attention can help in some way... (most of them are the same sources from the last post, but when they're good, they're good, right?)

**Just so you know, some of the pictures included in this post came from additional sites that wrote about apostrophes. I did not highlight them here, but they all have good things to say if you are interested!

           

Here are some of the sites/posts I found:

The Oatmeal

• The Oatmeal creates comics for just about everything under the sun, even apostrophes!! This comic is full of good information and examples of the "where", "when" and "why" of apostrophes.

GrammarGirl

• GrammarGirl's post about apostrophes is not on the humorous side like The Oatmeal; rather it is purely educational.  But if you can make it through to the end (I know it can be hard when it is not all about entertainment), some very good points are made...I even got a refresher course on a basic rule: that some words are punctuated differently depending on context.
• GrammarGirl has also made a video talking about the use of apostrophes in plurals...the voice is kinda monotone, but she uses a real-life example (a Victoria's Secret ad) to demonstrate some rules and make some suggestions

MoonTimeTunes

• A post by MoonTimeTunes lists three different "threats" that affect how apostrophes are used or not.

VideoJug

• VideoJug has put together a clip to demonstrate 4 rules about apostrophe use. The clip is not very long, and the rules presented flow together so it does not seem like you are being bombarded with information.

GrammarBook

• GrammarBook has made a quiz to test your apostrophe skills...I myself scored an 11 out of 12.

Bob the Angry Flower

HowToDoThings

• HowToDoThings has a very simple article about the steps/rules of apostrophes. It gives the same basic information found in some of the other resources I have listed, it is just in list form.

Thoughts From A Redhead

• I love the way she starts her post "Let's Talk About Apostrophe's"! She, of course, makes a comment about the title and its worthiness of a cringe (: 

I hope this resources will come in handy...They are all very similar, but there are only so many rules, thank goodness!  Let me know what you think,

Amanda