the very subtlest shades of meaning

Question

1. There are the very subtlest shades of meaning in these four, which are too complicated to explain.

Q)
2. The most interesting movie is this.
3. The funniest movie is this.
4. The very funniest movie is this. (ungrammatical, right?)
5. The very subtlest shades of meaning (??????)

In #1, I was wondering how the superlative "subtlest" can be used with an adverb "very."

Malapropism · Accepted Answer

Yup no. 4 is ungrammatical.

I'm not really sure what the question is though. Do you have any more context?

Moon7296 · Answer

There are the very subtlest shades of meaning in these four, which are too complicated to explain. Consider them all the same - for all practical purposes.

The sentence above is from another thread: https://www.EnglishForward.com/English/TimeWhen/bcbmbn/post.htm

What the answerer says is for the question below.

Which do you find the best? And also let me know if any one is ungrammatical.
(1-A) Do you remember the time when we took you camping?
(1-B) Do you remember the time we took you camping?
(1-C) Do you remember when we took you camping?
(1-D) Do you remember the time that we took you camping?

--> The answerer says this:
1A to 1D are all correct, and mean more or less the same thing. There are the very subtlest shades of meaning in these four, which are too complicated to explain. Consider them all the same - for all practical purposes.

Q) After reading his answer, my original question arose.

Malapropism · Answer

moon7296There are the very subtlest shades of meaning in these four, which are too complicated to explain. Consider them all the same - for all practical purposes.The sentence above is from another thread: What the answerer says is for the question below.Which do you find the best? And also let me know if any one is ungrammatical.(1-A) Do you remember the time when we took you camping?(1-B) Do you remember the time we took you camping?(1-C) Do you remember when we took you camping?(1-D) Do you remember the time that we took you camping?--> The answerer says this:1A to 1D are all correct, and mean more or less the same thing. There are the very subtlest shades of meaning in these four, which are too complicated to explain. Consider them all the same - for all practical purposes.Q) After reading his answer, my original question arose.

You want to know the difference in meaning to the above four sentences? Well they all can be used interchangeably, but I suppose you could say that
(1-C) Do you remember when we took you camping?

could be used literally, as in, do you remember the date we took you camping, as well as the experience of going camping. It depends what the asker means by "when" in that context.

The others sentence differences are so subtle even I couldn't explain them. Lol.

Fivejedjon · Answer

moon7296 I was wondering how the superlative "subtlest" can be used with an adverb "very."

You'll find hundreds of examples of very + superlative in the Corpus of Contemporary American English. It's the very best corpus I know.

That may not be elegant style, but it's common - that's the very latest information.

Anonymous · Answer

The four sentences, 1-A to 1-D, mean the same thing, but it could be said that there is a slight difference in usage (otherwise, why would there be four variations of the same sentence?).

1-A: This is the longest - along with 1-D - of the four and the most formal. This would typically be used (in the US) when the speaker is trying to sound very serious to the listener.

1-B: This is 1-A with the "when" omitted, and as a result, it is less formal-sounding. The speaker is not trying to be as serious-sounding as in 1-A.

1-C: This is 1-A with "the time" omitted and replaced by "when." This gives the sentence a different flavor: the speaker is trying to sound friendly and informal to the listener.

1-D: This is 1-A with "when" replaced by "that." This sentence sounds formal and very cold, almost hostile. The speaker does not like the listener.

the very subtlest shades of meaning

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