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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