Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Bubbilicious Grammar!

I just read some lovely, poetic writing on Bubbles' blog. In it there was some delightfully descriptive, emotive language. However, I was a little distracted by some incorrect grammar. This has given us a great opportunity to learn something we may not all understand fully. It's great for me too, because I think made a slightly incorrect statement in Bubbles' blog... or maybe I was correct. You better check to see if you can prove me right or wrong.
Who knows what comparatives and superlatives are? You may not know the words but you do use them all the time when comparing things.

e.g. Someone may be taller than someone else. 'Taller' is a comparative word. Alternatively, someone could be the tallest person. 'Tallest' is a superlative. Easy, huh? What you need to remember is that you can't use superlatives and 'most' together, as in 'the most tallest'. It isn't correct.




Back in Shakespeare's day people got away with this, but not now:

"Standard English no longer permits expressions such as most unkindest, where the superlative is marked by the preceding most as well as the -est inflection. In C16 there was no constraint on their use, and Shakespeare uses them in several of his plays to underscore a dramatic judgment."

:-)


13 comments:

Kitty Milo said...

cool wordfind :)

MrWoody said...

Thanks Kittymilo - nice to hear from you again. How's yr 8 at my old school? Enjoying the different style of class?

Kitty Milo said...

:) Year 8 is really cool its funner and um mudpies won the altrusa award today lol. yes sports class is cool we do karate and lots of pe and sports and yeah :)

Kitty Milo said...

hows your school going ?

Radioactive5ian said...

Last term we did an inquiry project and i did Shakespeare! it was fun.

three other people from rm6 also got nominated for the altrusa award it was cool

Little Miss Room 18 said...

Wow, Thanks Mr Woody now I understand comparatives and superlatives a bit better!

MrWoody said...

Good news, MIssRm18 :-) You are the star blogger this term for sure :-)

The Other Boy said...

What do you mean when you said "In C16 there..."? What is C16?

MrWoody said...

C16 = 16th Century :-)
Good question

Bubbles said...

Thanks Mr Woody!!!!
You read my story and I didnt no what superlatives and comparatives were I didnt even know they excisted!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! =)

Bubbles said...

I think you are right according to the link and dictionary.com!!!!!! =)

MrWoody said...

well done Bubbles :-)

Emmanuel said...

Hi where from brisbane in australia we like how you do that smiley face. Wow great word search there is really hard words in there. We would really like to come to new zealand.


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