brewski
Who taught : Holt (From Parenthood)
Parenthood (source: Wikipedia)
Gooder, More good, More big, More bigger, more happy
What are these? Well, as you can see, these are all wrong expressions. One of the difficult things in English is to use “more” or “-er” properly as the comparative form of adjectives. You may get away from mistakes with the comparative form in writing. But, it is easy to make a mistake when you speak. To refresh your memory, let me explain how to use the comparative form of adjectives correctly.
1. One syllable words form the comparative by adding -er or -est. (e.g : braver)
2. Two syllable words that end in -y, -le, and -er form the comparative by adding -er or -est (e.g : happier, cleverer)
3. Words with more than two syllables form the comparative with more or most (e.g : more important, more beautiful)
Whenever I make mistakes with these, I feel like I am so dumb. I mean, this is one of the things I have seen in my English exams so many times. Yet, I still make mistakes, especially when I speak.
But, I would say, “Do not worry about it too much.” All of my friends understand what I am saying and, in fact, I have heard Americans using this in a wrong way too. Also, in a commercial that I have seen, they also use the expression, gooder, instead of better. It is too obvious that they use it intentionally but my point is everybody understands what it means. Many times, non-native English speakers are afraid of speaking English, worrying about making mistakes. Thus, they do not want to mingle with native English speakers. I would say, “Be brave! Go out and speak English as much as you can. That is the shortcut for you to get better and better in English.”
One of the TV shows I really love to watch these days is Parenthood. I would strongly recommend it. Its stories are about love and conflicts between parents and children. It is very touching. In last week’s episode, Drew Holt’s friend used one expression that caught my attention. He said, “Let’s have some brewskis.” From the context, I was able to figure out what brewski is. Also, if you know what brewery is, you would be able to figure out what brewski is. That is right. It means beer. According to what I found, one Canadian guy started to use this expression and became popular. But, I am not sure that is correct or not.
Having said that, here is today’s challenge for you! Why don’t you go to your American friend and say, “Hey dude! Do you wanna have some brewskis today?” And when you hang out with him/her, talk about how hard the comparative form in English is and ask some tips. Once again, to be able to get better and better in anything in the world, you have to be proactive and practice. It will get better slowly but be patient. Good luck!
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Boy, I didn’t know those rules. Alex keeps telling us about this one rule that I completely don’t understand but he says that we follow… I wonder where all these rules come from?
You do follow those rules alomost subconsciously. I mean you are so used to say with those rules that, if we ask them, you would be like, “I do not know. It just feels right.” But, for us, it is too hard to remember them every time we speak. I also want to find out who made those rules. Tell me about it! Why? Why? 🙂
Anybod here can explain the difference between “start to + verb” and “start + present participle” ?
For example)
“the phone starts to ring” vs “the phone starts ringing” ,
“everybody starts to look at me” vs “everybody starts looking at me”
The difference between “I stopped to smoke” vs “I stopped smoking” is very clear but the verb “start” is not.
Both of the constructs you give as examples are a little stilted – they sound like someone is telling a slightly dramatic story in a stylized fashion, rather than like people talking in normal conversation. I think I generally use ‘start’ in normal conversation to talk about the past (Yeah, I started going to the gym more often when I found out that I was pregnant) or the future (Let’s start tomorrow.)
You’re right, the meaning in those two is much closer than in your stopped example. But I do feel a small difference between them – to me, when you say “the phone starts to ring”, it feels like the phone has started, and it’s in the past, and the next thing is going to happen. It seems like you’re just starting to list things that have happened. On the other hand, when you say “the phone starts ringing”, you are still in that moment and trapped there – it’s still happening.
That’s just my feeling, though – other people might disagree with me!
Hello Jean,
Appreciate your kind and helpful explanation.
I also asked the same thing to my colleague and she said as below.
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In the example “the phone starts to ring” vs “the phone starts ringing” you don’t use “the phone starts to ring” because a phone either rings or it doesn’t.
When we “start to” do something, we begin/attempt to do it but we don’t actually complete/do it.
On the other hand, when we “start doing (present participle)” something, we are actually carrying out that act. We may continue doing it or we may be interrupted, but we are actually doing it.
Honestly, in spoken English, both are okay and highly depends on your intention. No one will think question you on the usage of “start to + verb” and “start + present participle”.
The reason why we feel that we are actually carrying out the act if we use “start + present participle” is because the action of starting something is past. On the other hand, “start + to verb” should be feeling of trying to do something because the action of starting is future or sort of very recent present. That is why if the subject is a thing like a phone, it does not feel correct to use “to verb” because they can not try to do something.
That is what I have in my mind for this comparison!
Thanks for the question and comments. I learn a lot from this kind of discussion. Awesome!
Whoa – totally weird! I was just reading this blog post and the “Gooder” commercial came on. I’d never seen it before.
Haha.. What a perfect timing!
That should probably be, “What perfect timing!” (no “a”). 🙂