ESL Vocabulary and Idioms

Re: Adjectives that double the last consonant

Meztli — Sun, 20 Apr 2008 19:01:33 GMT

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!!

Re: Adjectives that double the last consonant

Pter — Sun, 20 Apr 2008 07:16:16 GMT

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.

Re: Adjectives that double the last consonant

Meztli — Sun, 20 Apr 2008 01:34:24 GMT

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., tanÃÂ·ner, tanÃÂ·nest.

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

Thanks for your examples!!

Re: Adjectives that double the last consonant

Pter — Sat, 19 Apr 2008 12:18:02 GMT

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.

Re: Adjectives that double the last consonant

Meztli — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 19:34:45 GMT

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

Thanks for your reply.

Re: Adjectives that double the last consonant

Grammar Geek — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 18:33:57 GMT

How many do you need?

Slim

Re: Adjectives that double the last consonant

Meztli — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 17:51:58 GMT

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!

Re: Adjectives that double the last consonant

Philip — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 17:38:59 GMT

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.

Adjectives that double the last consonant

Meztli — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 16:33:35 GMT

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.