Adjectives that double the last consonant

Share on Facebook

Meztli

#502356 Fri, 18 Apr 08 05:33 PM

I need some help to find adjectives that double the last consonant when working as comparatives.

I have some: wet, big, fat, thin, sad, red, hot, .. Wold you help with some others?

Thanks in advance.

Meztli

Joined on Fri, Apr 18 2008

Mexico City

New Member (05)

Adjectives, comparatives, comparisons, Consonants, superlatives

Philip

#502366 Fri, 18 Apr 08 06:38 PM

I don't have time to add to your list right now, but if you're looking for a general rule: if the vowel before is "short" and there is no intervening consonant the consonant is doubled.

Philip

Joined on Thu, Jun 23 2005

USA Pacific Northwest (Seattle)

Veteran Member (6,181)

At reise er at leve! - H. C. Andersen

Consonants, Vowels

Meztli

#502368 Fri, 18 Apr 08 06:51 PM

Hi Philip,

Thanks for your reply. What I see is that there are very few adjectives that are involved with that rule, I've found 11:

bad, big, fat, red, sad, tan, thin, wet, hot, flat, drab.

Thanks!

Meztli

Adjectives, comparatives

Grammar Geek

#502377 Fri, 18 Apr 08 07:33 PM

How many do you need?

Slim

Grammar Geek

Joined on Tue, Jan 10 2006

Pennsylvania, USA

Veteran Member (15,595)

Barbara, who answers in American English.

Meztli

#502403 Fri, 18 Apr 08 08:34 PM

Of course, it's not the number, but I want to know if there are more than those ones.

Thanks for your reply.

Meztli

Adjectives, comparatives, Numbers

Pter

#502612 Sat, 19 Apr 08 01:18 PM

bad? badder, baddest?

tan? tanner, tannest? (tanner is not an adjective)

There are no such words.

fit, glad, mad, glib, smug, snug, dim, glum, grim, prim, rum, trim, wan, hip

cruel (may or may not double the "l")

Couldn't find any more.

Pter

Joined on Wed, Nov 28 2007

Hong Kong

Full Member (428)

Meztli

#502842 Sun, 20 Apr 08 02:34 AM

Absolutely agree about bad, it was a huge slip. But I'm not sure about tan, in several lists they accepted as an adjective; moreover in http://www.answers.com/tan I found this:

adj., tanÂ·ner, tanÂ·nest.

Light or moderate yellowish-brown to brownish-orange.
Having a suntan.
Used in or relating to tanning.

Thanks for your examples!!

Meztli

Pter

#502905 Sun, 20 Apr 08 08:16 AM

You may be able to find tanner/tannest in a few dictionaries, but most dictionaries I checked do not list them as acceptable words (including the Oxford English Dictionary). I would also object their status of being valid English words or even valid concepts in any language. We know that red, green and blue are the three basic colours of visible light. All other colours are combination of these three. You can only say redder/reddest, greener/greenest and bluer/bluest because you can define what is pure red, green and blue. On the other hand, you can't say oranger, browner, purpler, tanner etc. because such comparison is meaningless. How can you compare an orange colour that is closer to red with another one closer to yellow? Which one is oranger?

Longman defines tan as a light yellowish-brown colour. So, is tanner lighter, "yellower", or "browner"? You can have a deep tan or a light tan, but tanner is certainly an invalid concept.

Pter

Meztli

#503059 Sun, 20 Apr 08 08:01 PM

Thanks for this long explanation. This is a good example of prescriptive grammar that does not correspond to the everyday use of the language. Sometimes this is hard to understand for the non-native speakers we are.

Thanks!!

Meztli

Grammar