Common Mistakes with Gradable and Non-Gradable Adjectives

Hi everyone. I'm Jennifer from English with  Jennifer. Let me ask you three questions. We'll  

see how easy it is for you to answer. One. Which  capital city is more bigger, Paris or London?

2. Name the most fastest animal in the world.

3. What would be the most ideal  place for a one-week vacation?

Were you able to answer my questions? I don't  think it was too difficult to understand what I  

asked, although all three questions had  grammar mistakes. Did you recognize them?  

Look more closely. One. Which capital  city is more bigger, Paris or London?  

We don't put "more" and the suffix -er together.  

It's one or the other. The correct question is,  "Which capital city is bigger. Paris or London?"

Two. Name the most fastest animal in the world.  We don't put "most" and the suffix -est together.  

It's one or the other. The correct question  is, "Name the fastest animal in the world."

Three. What would be the most ideal place  for a one-week vacation? Well, I don't know  

what the answer to that is, but I do know that  "ideal" is already perfect, and we don't usually  

talk about something being more perfect or the  most perfect. Something is either ideal or not.  

No modifier is needed. It's better to ask, "What  would be the ideal place for a one-week vacation?"

Some grammar mistakes are minor, and they  don't necessarily create misunderstandings,  

but they break standard patterns, so they  sound a bit odd. Why make it harder for  

your listener to understand you? That's  why I recommend using standard grammar.  

In this lesson, let's talk about common mistakes  with adjectives and learn how to avoid them.

Mistake number one. Using "more" and the suffix  -er together. Most adjectives are descriptive.  

They help us describe things. Often we can use  comparative forms, which allow us to compare  

one thing to another. We add  -er to one-syllable adjectives,  

and we use "more" before longer adjectives.

Big-bigger. Tall-taller. Nice-nicer. More  beautiful. More difficult. More complex.

Note that some two-syllable adjectives use  the suffix -er: easy-easier, pretty-prettier.  

We need to remember the spelling rules. We double  the final consonant when the adjective ends  

in vowel + consonant. We also change a  final "y" to an "i" before adding -er.

Sometimes even native speakers  don't know which form to use:  

more or -er. That's when we turn to a  dictionary to confirm. "Stupid" is one  

of the few adjectives that could use either form.  It's correct to say "stupider" or "more stupid."

Mistake number two. Using "most" and the  suffix -est together. It's one or the  

other to form a superlative adjective.  The most beautiful. The most difficult.  

The most complex. Again, there are  exceptions: narrow-narrower-narrowest,  

happy-happier-happiest. These two-syllable  adjectives end in an unstressed vowel sound,  

so adding the suffixes for the comparative  and superlative forms is the usual practice.  

"Happy" and "narrow" are two-syllable adjectives.  

Think of the -ing and -ed adjectives you  know. They include two-syllable adjectives,  

but these participial adjectives end in consonant  sounds: -ing, -ed. So, it's more likely that these  

participial adjectives will use "more" for the  comparative and "most" for the superlative:  

more tired-most tired, more tiring-most  tiring. Here are a couple more adjectives  

with two syllables. Which one uses the suffixes  -er and -est and which one uses "more" and "most"?

"Handy" ends in an unstressed  vowel, so: handy-handier-handiest.

"Useful" ends in a consonant sound:  useful-more useful-the most useful.

Quick quiz. Choose the correct form of  the comparative or superlative adjective.

Mistake number three. Trying to  modify non-gradable adjectives.  

Remember my question about the most ideal  place? It made sense, but it wasn't correct.  

That's because we don't usually talk about  degrees of being ideal. Ideal is an absolute  

concept. Things are either ideal or they aren't.  "Ideal" is an example of a non-gradable adjective.  

Non-gradable adjectives don't usually  have a comparative or superlative form,  

and we don't use modifiers like "very" or "a  little bit" or "quite" to increase or decrease  

the degree of that quality or state. Have you seen  my lesson on intensifiers and downtoners? In that  

video, I go over words like "very" and "quite."  There are some adverbs we can use to modify  

non-gradable adjectives like "ideal": absolutely  ideal, completely impossible, totally unavoidable.

Other non-gradable adjectives include noun  modifiers. When we talk about a laptop computer,  

"laptop" modifies "computer." What kind of  computer? A laptop computer. But I can't say  

"more laptop," "less laptop," "very laptop."  

"Laptop" is a noun modifier. It's not a  descriptive adjective, like "expensive" or "good."

Also, adjectives that help us classify people or  things are usually non-gradable. I can talk about  

very healthy food, and I can say that Japanese  food is likely healthier than American food.  

"Healthy" is a descriptive adjective, so "very  healthy" and "healthier" are forms that work.  

However, it's a little weird to talk about  food being "more Japanese" or "less Japanese"  

because "Japanese" is an adjective that helps  me classify things like food. It would be  

better to talk about food being more typical  or less typical of Japanese cuisine. Get it?  

Nationalities are classifying adjectives. In some  situations, I could say, "Oh, that's so American!"  

Or, "She's very American." And from context, you  would understand that I'm talking about behavior  

or perhaps appearance. But in general, when we use  adjectives to classify people or things, we don't  

use modifiers like "more" or "very" or "so very."  Quick quiz. Identify the non-gradable adjectives.

Mistake number four. Using the wrong word order.  Would you call this a little cute yellow pineapple  

or a cute little yellow pineapple?

I would call it a cute little yellow pineapple  because "cute" is an opinion adjective,  

and opinion adjectives go first. If you  saw my lesson on the order of adjectives,  

you'll recall the commonly accepted order:  opinion, size, age, shape, color, origin,  

material, noun modifier, and then the head noun.  There may be a little bit of variation there in  

the middle, but this is the commonly accepted  order of adjectives. If you have two opinion  

adjectives, you can use "and" or a comma.  A cute and cuddly toy. A cute, cuddly toy.  

In some other languages, an adjective can follow a  noun, but in English, we place an adjective before  

the head noun: a talented artist, a  wonderful speech, a relaxing vacation.

Another common pattern in English is to use an  

adjective after a linking verb to  describe or identify the subject.  

Isabela is talented. The speech was wonderful.  Vacations are not always relaxing. Adjectives  

in this position are subject complements.  They complement or complete the subject.  

One exception is a reduced adjective clause. If  I tell you that I'm hungry for something salty,  

I'm really saying that I'm hungry  for something that is salty.

I omitted the relative pronoun "that"  and the form of be "is." Something salty.  

In this case, I can have an adjective  follow a noun or pronoun. Something salty.  

Here are two more examples. Can you understand  which words I omitted (which words I left out)?  

They're looking for a candidate  skilled in negotiation.

They're looking for a candidate  who is skilled in negotiation.

A financial advisor is someone  knowledgeable about investments.

A financial advisor is someone who  is knowledgeable about investments.

Quick quiz. Correct the order  of adjectives, if necessary.

Okay. We'll end here. Please remember to like  and share the video if you found the lesson  

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