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We say "more beautiful" to refer to someone's beauty as being greater than another person's or other people's beauty. Here we use more because beautiful has no comparative form. When we deal with the words that have a comparative form, we use the comparative, e.g., "he looks happier today"; here we are using happier because happy has a comparative form.

But even if an adjective has a comparative form, can we use more to compare with others? Do sentences such as "John is more tall than Jack", instead of "John is taller than Jack" sound odd?

apaderno
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Mistu4u
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    If the adjective forms its comparative with -er, a comparative with more is always incorrect. Your terminology, by the way, is non-standard (though perfectly comprehensible): more beautiful *is* the comparative of beautiful – StoneyB on hiatus Feb 19 '13 at 14:04

1 Answers1

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Please see the previous question and answer here, which is closely related to yours: "bigger" vs. "more big"

  1. Does the adjective beautiful, and others like it, have a comparative form? Yes, they do. That particular premise of your post (that beautiful does not have a comparative form) is incorrect. Beautiful is a longer adjective (see the previous, linked post for the details) and the comparative form is more + adjective.

  2. Can more be used together with a comparative to somehow further or more intensely compare two things? In a word, no. More better is incorrect; more taller is incorrect, and more more beautiful is also incorrect. If you want to intensify these comparisons, use much + comparative adjective: much better, much taller, much more beautiful.

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Shawn Mooney
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  • The OP is assuming adjectives do have a comparative degree; that is not something he is questioning. – apaderno Feb 19 '13 at 14:18
  • @kiamlaluno, OP specifically wrote that ""beautiful" has no comparative form" – Shawn Mooney Feb 19 '13 at 14:20
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    Maybe he means that beautifuller is not a word. Then, the OP is not talking of more taller, but more tall. – apaderno Feb 19 '13 at 14:54
  • @kiamlaluno, I want to make peace with you, but maybe this particular post is not the place to do so. I fail to see how your suppositions about what OP might have intended negate my response. However, you and I have butted heads before when it was after midnight my time and afterwards I had to eat my hat, so please clarify. As far as my foggy mind can comprehend, the previous, linked post, together with my answer to this post, sufficiently answers OP's queries; on the other hand, your follow-ups seem but red herrings. I have eaten my hat on stack-exchange before, so...give me more. – Shawn Mooney Feb 19 '13 at 15:22
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    I have never eaten anybody's hat, nor have I eaten @nohat's hat. You open your answer saying that this question is not a duplicate, but what you are supposing asked from the OP is not what the OP is asking. It seems the OP is (wrongly) using comparative for words like taller, and not more beautiful; when he says beautiful doesn't have the comparative, he means beautifuller is not an English word. Then, he is not asking about more taller, but more tall, for which there is already a question, even if that is about bigger. – apaderno Feb 19 '13 at 15:43
  • @kiamlaluno, sadly, you have not responded in kind ("where is the love?"), and I don't want to sound snarky, BUT, we seem to be interpreting OP's post differently; I was certainly giving him the benefit of the doubt, but because of the unintelligible grammar in your latest response, I cannot quite follow the objections you are raising about my answer when considered alongside the previous post and its answers, including mine, as I urged it must be. Please show me how my current answer to OP, when considered alongside the earlier post, is lacking... The hat-eating offer still stands.. – Shawn Mooney Feb 19 '13 at 16:08
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    @ShawnMooney At the risk of sticking my nose into someone else's conversation, I agree with kiamlaluno. OP is not asking about phrases like "more taller". He explicitly uses the examples "John is more tall than Jack" and "John is taller than Jack" (emphasis mine) to demonstrate his meaning. Thus, your comments regarding the unrelated more taller are off topic; OP simply wants to know whether more tall is correct even though there exists a one-word comparator, "taller", and if so, which is preferred. – Ken Bellows Feb 19 '13 at 16:19
  • @KenB, stick your nose anywhere you like. OP's post has been edited numerous times (including by me), and has now been marked as 'duplicate', so I am not sure which version you've responded to. Taking such 'moving goal posts' into account, I hope both you and kiamlaluno can agree that taller is correct as a comparative for the short adjective "tall", that "more taller" is ungrammatical, and that my response to OP's post today, considered together with the earlier, linked post, dispenses with your objections...). If not, repost! It is 1:55 am Tokyo time and time for bed! – Shawn Mooney Feb 19 '13 at 17:05
  • @ShawnMooney There is no version of this post in which the OP asked about "more taller". – Ken Bellows Feb 19 '13 at 17:20
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    I am afraid I might have to say that @KenB and kiamlaluno has got my question rightly. Maybe due to my poor word choice Shwan is misled. I am apologizing to Shawn for that. – Mistu4u Feb 19 '13 at 17:44
  • @KenB, it is indeed true that OP did not ask about "more taller", and I thank you for bringing this to my/our attention. I failed to transcribe nor did I correct OP's grammatical error, but surely it is contextually obvious in OP that he was asking whether there is, in fact, any difference between (1) Jack is taller than Jill and Jack is more tall than Jill, grammatically or otherwise,; again, based on my previous response in conjunction with the linked-answer (which umpteen fuss-budgets seem to want to shut down this dialogue in favor of) can you not agree that I have a valid point? – Shawn Mooney Feb 19 '13 at 18:20
  • @Mistu4u, no need to apologize. I intend to review all of these comments with fresh eyes in the morning, and add to the dialogue or correct my part it in accordingly. I have already violated my no-posting/commenting-after midnight rule. :) – Shawn Mooney Feb 19 '13 at 18:27