Grammar Girl here, guest rider Bonnie Trangle will be your hostess with the most is today because

we're looking at how to make comparisons using adjectives and adverbs.

Bonnie writes, when you want to modify a noun, is it okay to stick a more or a most in front

or a less or a least?

No, not always.

Let's take a look at adjectives first.

Such as tall, squeaky, careful and extraordinary, describe nouns.

There are two ways to make a comparison with an adjective.

You can use more or most in front of the adjective, for example, more wonderful.

Or you can use the suffixes ER and EST on the end of the adjective, for example, squeakier.

For the most part, which way you choose depends on how many syllables the adjective has.

Comparisons involving adjectives with one syllable or three syllables or more follow

clear-cut rules, whereas the situation is different for adjectives with two syllables.

One syllable adjectives use the suffixes ER or EST on the end of the adjective.

For example, tall has one syllable.

So if you wanted to compare the height of your family members, you might say, I'm taller

than my sister, but I'm not the tallest in the family.

It would sound odd to say I'm more tall than my sister, but I'm not the most tall in

the family.

There are exceptions for some irregular one word adjectives, such as good and bad.

You say better and best and worse and worse, not gooder and batter and goodest and baddest.

You might encounter baddest in colloquial English, as in he's the baddest of the bad, but

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