87. 'The more the merrier'

Google Images

Who might claim that we don’t manufacture our own idealized model of ‘being’, or ‘acting’? Consciously or unconsciously, we’re constantly trying to look better, taller, more interesting; or else seem more intelligent, better prepared, richer, healthier…It’s absolutely natural to try to improve and embellish our domestic affairs and the world we’re adjusting to against our potential, while actualizing it: it’s the essence of human nature.

Hm. No sooner said than done! One needs some solid knowledge of adjective and adverb formation to do that successfully. While expressing ‘positive’ values, there doesn’t seem to be too much trouble paying attention to such…static, uninteresting affirmations as My car is bigger, faster, and more expensive than his; but in order to make the discourse unfold while you speak you must know that adjectives and adverbs are a somewhat unsettled category which shaped asymmetrically in English. 

In the first place, let's consider that there are two main categories following two different rules:

One-syllable adjectives like fat, big, and coarse - but also two-syllable adjectives ending in -y, such as easy, healthy and happy take suffixes  when forming the comparative of superiority: fatter - bigger - coarser; and easier - healthier, happier, respectively; then again their superlative forms are: the  fattest, the biggest, the coarsest and, correspondingly, the easiest, the healthiest and the happiest are their superlative forms. 

The remaining two-syllable adjectives and the multi-syllable ones follow the more/less and the most/least rules: more/less expensive; the most/least expensive.

But that's NOT all. There is a third category fluctuating between the two. Adjectives like clever, stupid, tired, shallow may appear in either of the above mentioned patterns. It’s also true that one can use I feel more tired / tireder today than yesterday (though tireder is hardly ever heard these days). Again, this should make us think about exceptions, in the first place the irregular forms.

Here they are:

good /well > better > the best
bad /ill > worse > the worst
much /many > more > the most
little > less  >the least
far > farther > the farthest (in space)
far > further > the furthest (in time)
late > later (time)// >> the latest (the most recent) 
                                        >> the last> (in a series)
      > latter (the second of two entities) < >former (the first of two entities)

And something must be said about the conflicting adjectives that have replaced adverbs in General American, like Now I want you to move real (=really) slow. Then again, a lot can be said about How are you? ~ (AmE) I’m good (BrE=fine /(very) well) or I’m trying hard – never hardly. 

Google Images

Yet there are still those trustworthy cases in which you simply can’t say *Everything is more easy today: it’s still easier that represents the established norm.      

HOW TO EXPRESS PROGRESSIVE/PARALLEL INCREASE OR DECREASE IN QUALITY OR NUMBER

A.  Progressive increase /decrease

You can express these linguistic aspects by placing the corresponding adjective or adverb after the verb – reduplicating it and uniting them by and.

It goes without saying that the use of progressive tenses is not a grammatical, but a logical, consequence:

Thomas smokes more and more.

Your niece studies less and less.

Well, that is the ideal case. It’s just that by no means are adjectives and adverbs in English so easy to transform. The ones above are special forms whose ‘positive’ variants cause a lot of trouble when you want to quantify or qualify nominals: it’s all a matter of number, i.e., singular (Singular Countable and Singular Uncountable/Quantity) and plural. ‘More’ will refer to either (Aff.) ‘a lot (of_)’ or (Neg.) and (Aff-? /Neg.-?) [not] much/many [?]. So, if you wonder what the previous affirmations look like in the positive, you’ll have to consider:

Google Images

Thomas smokes a lot / *a lot of cigarettes. (nobody says that about the default case, that is cigarettes; only if Thomas smokes cigars, or a pipe – otherwise there’ll be no mention)

Your niece studies little. (how strange that both smoke and study  should be free from expressing the Direct Object, don’t you think? Someone studies ‘something’ anyway!)

Let’s say that a schematic visualization would look like this:

adjetive[-er] and adjetive[-er]

It was getting colder and colder.

You are coming home later and later.

She’s getting fatter and fatter.

Analytic adjectives and adverbs do use more+adjective /adverb and less+adjective/adverb, respectively:

more and more + adjective less and less + adjective

The film became more and more interesting.

She was becoming less and less interested in his speech.

“What time shall we leave?” ~ ”The sooner the better.(=as soon as possible)

“What sort of box do you want? A big one?” ~ “The bigger the better”. (=as big as possible)

When you’re traveling, the less luggage you have to carry the better. (=it is best to have as little luggage as possible).

Note word order in the structure with two comparatives:

The younger you are, the easier it is to learn.

Google Images

What this means is that you aren’t allowed to leave the subject and the verb out of the expression, and that they follow the normal Word Order.

Still, the forms of to be are omitted when the correlated sentences require the same verb form:

The more expensive the hotel [is], the better the service [is].

Exercise 1. Use the Word(s) in brackets (in the correct form) to complete the sentences:

1. I like warm weather. The warmer the weather, … (feel).

2. I didn’t really like him when we first met. But the more I got to know him,… (like) him.

3. If you’re in business, you want to make a profit. The more goods you sell,… (profit/make).

4. It’s hard to concentrate when you’re tired. The more tired you are,…. (hard/to concentrate).

5. She had to wait a very long time. The longer she waited,… (impatient / become)

6. Old people are wise, or at least that’s what they say… (be old /become wise)

B.  Parallel increase/decrease

Here, it’s the lexical unit the that solves the problem. Mind you, we’re far away from the definite article; we should go back in time to important changes that took place in Middle English to know why this happened. For the present purpose, it would be easier to accept it as it is and…move it right along!

Again, the adjectives we used above will prove of great help:

The more John studies the more he learns.

Or the opposite:

The less John studies the less he learns.

(I wouldn’t discard ‘The more John studies the less he knows’)

The fatter Sam gets the uglier he becomes.

The more famous she became the sadder she seemed to be.

The less notice she takes of him the more he tries to please her. 

Make complete sentences of the following prompts:

1.      I / try/explain / her /difficult /be / convince her

2.    Old /one /get / one / little /seem / willing to change

3.    You / move / a lot /it /hurt / a lot

4.    You /lenient /become /people around you try /impose / you

5.     He /listen / her /little /she / insist / a lot

6.    Few students /there / to be /in class / often / be asked

7.     You have your say /little / often /bad / be / everybody

Google Images

8.    One / buy / little / one /save / a lot of money /

B.  Parallel increase/decrease

Here, it’s the lexical unit the that solves the problem. Mind you, we’re far away from the definite article; we should go back in time to important changes that took place in Middle English to know why this happened. For the present purpose, it would be easier to accept it as it is and…move it right along!

Again, the adjectives we used above will prove of great help:

The more John studies the more he learns.

Or the opposite:

The less John studies the less he learns.

(I wouldn’t discard ‘The more John studies the less he knows’)

The fatter Sam gets the uglier he becomes.

The more famous she became the sadder she seemed to be.

The less notice she takes of him the more he tries to please her. 
The more, the merrier (exercises)

 

Exercise 1 Suggested answers

1.      The warmer the weather, the better I feel.

2.    But the more I got to know him the more I liked him (*there’s also I like him best)

3.    The more goods you sell, the more profits you’ll make.

4.    The more tired you are, the harder it is (for you) to concentrate.

5.     The longer she waited, the more impatient she became.

6.    The older people are, the wiser they become.

Exercise 2 Suggested answers

1.      The more I tried to explain to her the more difficult it was to convince her.

2.    The older one gets the less one seems willing to change.

3.    The more you (‘ll) move the more it will hurt you.

4.    The more lenient you become the more people around you will try to impose on you.

5.     The less he listened to her the more she insisted.

6.    The fewer students there are/were in class the more often they are/were asked.

7.     The less often you have your say the worse it will be for everybody.

8.    The less one buys the more money one saves.