More well behaved or better behaved

better-behaved or more well-behaved
better-looking or more good-looking

I'd go with "better looking," but I find "better behaved" and "more well-behaved" equally acceptable.

Note the hyphen.

Edit. I see that MrM includes the hyphen in all four versions. I don't know if it's optional or required in the two-word forms. I'll try to find out.

Well, I find differences of "authoratative" opinion, so I'll leave it to others.
One requires that the hyphen be dropped from "well-behaved" when it's preceded by "more."
Some say to use the hyphen only when the noun being modified follows.
I remember a thread on this subject, but I can't find it.

I do see a difference.

The "more" forms assume it was good start with and got even better.
The "better" forms simply move it along the spectrum from bad closer to good. We don't know how bad (or good) it was to start with.

• He was a well-behaved child to start with. After his mother promised him ice cream if he could make it through the boring ceremony, he was even more we

Grammar GeekShe was always a pretty girl. As she got older, she became more better looking than ever.

Surely you mean "more good looking", right?

CJ

CalifJim

Grammar GeekShe was always a pretty girl. As she got older, she became more better looking than ever.

Surely you mean "more good looking", right?CJ

Oops!