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Usenet Posted 21 years ago
Usage
Most Deadly vs Deadliest
'morning
Last night I saw a TV commercial for a new movie, "Mr and Mrs Smith." The were called "the most deadly assassins."
Why not "deadliest assassins"?
Is there a grammatical difference or do you just "pay your money and takes your choice."
Just curious...
Adrian
Last night I saw a TV commercial for a new movie, "Mr and Mrs Smith." The were called "the most deadly assassins."
Why not "deadliest assassins"?
Is there a grammatical difference or do you just "pay your money and takes your choice."
Just curious...
Adrian
Top answer
" Why not "deadliest assassins"? "[/nq] There doesn't seem to be a significant grammatical difference. Bringing the superlative element of the phrase to the front helps to strengthen the impact of the phrase.
- " Why not "deadliest assassins"?
- "[/nq] There doesn't seem to be a significant grammatical difference.
- Bringing the superlative element of the phrase to the front helps to strengthen the impact of the phrase.
- u)
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4 Answers
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[nq:1]'morning Last night I saw a TV commercial for a new movie, "Mr and Mrs Smith." The were called "the most deadly assassins." Why not "deadliest assassins"? Is there a grammatical difference or do you just "pay your money and takes your choice."[/nq]
There doesn't seem to be a significant grammatical difference.
Bringing the superlative element of the phrase to the front helps to
There doesn't seem to be a significant grammatical difference.
Bringing the superlative element of the phrase to the front helps to
00
[nq:1]Last night I saw a TV commercial for a new movie, "Mr and Mrs Smith." The were called "the most deadly assassins." Why not "deadliest assassins"?[/nq]
Because there used to be a rule (approx. 1900) that two-syllable words ending in -Y did not modify with -ER (comparative) and -EST (superlative) but required the words more and most, e.g. the more speedy, most lively.
Don Phillips
Because there used to be a rule (approx. 1900) that two-syllable words ending in -Y did not modify with -ER (comparative) and -EST (superlative) but required the words more and most, e.g. the more speedy, most lively.
Don Phillips
00
[nq:2]Last night I saw a TV commercial for a new ... were called "the most deadly assassins." Why not "deadliest assassins"?[/nq]
[nq:1]Because there used to be a rule (approx. 1900) that two-syllable words ending in -Y did not modify with -ER (comparative) and -EST (superlative) but required the words more and most, e.g. the more speedy, most lively. Don Phillipson Carlsbad Springs (Ottawa, C
[nq:1]Because there used to be a rule (approx. 1900) that two-syllable words ending in -Y did not modify with -ER (comparative) and -EST (superlative) but required the words more and most, e.g. the more speedy, most lively. Don Phillipson Carlsbad Springs (Ottawa, C
00
[nq:2]Because there used to be a rule (approx. 1900) that ... words more and most, e.g. the more speedy, most lively.[/nq]
[nq:1]I don't know if the rule was as you state it was in 1900, but under the current grammatical rule, "deadly" falls under the category of those adjectives which form the superlative with either "more" or "-er."[/nq]
That would be the comparative: the superlatives ar
[nq:1]I don't know if the rule was as you state it was in 1900, but under the current grammatical rule, "deadly" falls under the category of those adjectives which form the superlative with either "more" or "-er."[/nq]
That would be the comparative: the superlatives ar
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