Word Study and English Grammar

pared. They are good, better, best, and bad, worse, worst. In spite of the fact that these adjectives are among the most common in use and their comparison may be supposed to be known by everybody, one often hears the expressions gooder, goodest, more better, bestest, bader, badest, worser, and worsest. Needless to say, these expressions are without excuse except that worser is sometimes found in old English.

Illiterate people sometimes try to make their speech more forceful by combining the two methods of comparison in such expressions as more prettier, most splendidest. Such compounds should never be used.

Some adjectives are not compared. They are easily identified by their meaning. They indicate some quality which is of such a nature that it must be possessed fully or not at all, yearly, double, all. Some adjective