IS ‘FREER’ EVEN A WORD?
A few days ago my co-worker asked if ‘freer’ was even a word, because being an American, she was convinced such thing does not exist in the English (or should I say ‘American’?) language…
This one little question takes me back to my thoughts of how little Americans really know about their own language. The comparison of adjectives is not a highly complex grammar, is it? Rather, it is quite basic, really. However, most Americans I’ve come across make many mistakes when it comes to forming comparative and superlative degrees.
So here is a bit of an explanation:
There are three degrees of comparison: positive, comparative and superlative. One-syllable adjectives form their comparative and superlative degrees by adding er and est to the positive form (e.g. bright—brighter—brightest, tall—taller—tallest), while the three- or more syllable adjectives use more and most respectively (e.g. interesting—more interesting—most interesting).
Two-syllable adjectives are a bit trickier since they follow both rules. Those ending in ful or re take more and most (e.g. doubtful—more doubtful—most doubtful, obscure—more obscure—most obscure,) while those ending in er, y or ly usually add er and est (e.g. clever—cleverer—cleverest, pretty—prettier—prettiest, silly—sillier—silliest).
Thus, according to the rule, which is true for both AmE (American English) and BrE (British English), one-syllable adjectives, such as free, can only from their comparative and superlative degrees by adding er and est and not by using more and most, contrary to the popular American belief.
To answer my co-worker’s question—yes, there is such a word as ‘freer’ and it is actually grammatically correct, people!