On Sep 20, 2005, at 13:34, Bev Walker wrote:
Some of the weaslier (new word?)
*more weasely* :)))
On what grounds?
As a dim Polack learning English in Warsaw, I was taught that
"adjectives of one or two syllables took on the -er ending in
comparative case"; wise-wiser, pretty-prettier, for example. It had to
be three or more syllables before the adjective stayed the same and
"more" was added in front of it. Excellent - more excellent,
brownbeatten- more brownbeatten, etc.
To be sure, *some* of the -er endings - even for a 2-syllable
adjectives - stick in my craw, but I've always assumed it was the
result of having lived in US for too long; US English *does* like to
streamline and standardise anything that's "off beat" (except when it
bends over backwards as in "boughten" and "drownded" <g>), so a "more
x" ending seems more "natural" to me than an "x-ier" one...
But "weasly" falls, precisely, on that continental divide... "Weaslier"
is more Brit (and the suggestion came from UK, not me) while "more
weasly" is more North America (US and Canada) but *both are correct*.
Once, that is, you accept that "weasly" is an honest-to-goodness
adjective... :) "Weasly" does not appear in any of my (admittedly
dated) dictionaries, Brit or US, but, since it's rather
self-explanatory, I decided to use it anyway. I can't remember -
apologies - as to who'd decided to pick it up and put it through more
"paces" using the -er ending for the comparative but, since she was in
UK (*that much* I do remember <g>), her version of comparative needed
no correction.
grammatcally speaking (or trying to) yours,
--
Tamara P Duvall http://t-n-lace.net/
Lexington, Virginia, USA (Formerly of Warsaw, Poland)
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