Re: Degrees of adjectives

caeruleancentaur wrote:

>Attributively:
>"I prefer the sweeter (la más dulce) drink of the two."
>"I prefer the sweetest (la más dulce) drink of the three."
>Need for the definite article with both.  They are exactly the same
>in Spanish (and in French?).
Ha? "I prefer the sweeter" means that there are only two compared to each
other and "I prefer the sweatest" means that there are more...


If "I prefer the sweeter" can be said, may it be replaced by "I prefer the
more sweet"

It sounds so ungrammatical to me... am I wrong?

Or a form ending in "-er" can not be replaced by a form with "more" each
times?


Anyway, I do not think that the distinction between "-er" and "-est" is
always redundant

if the equivalent of "-er" and "-est" were something like "-ert" (a mix...)
and that there doesn't need a definite article for the superlative:

what would mean "that drink is sweetert"?

would it be "that drink is sweeter (than another)" or "that drink is the
sweetest"?

these meaning are similar but if you have a few drinks it can be different

if there are 3 drinks to compare:

- You already tasted the three drinks. What do you think of that first
drink?
- Not very sweet...
- OK, now what's about the second one?
- That drink is sweetert!
- Great, and the last one?
- That one is sweetert!

As I understand it, he probably said that the 1st is not sweet, that the 2nd
is sweeter and that the 3rd is the sweetest but it's not sure he could have
said that the 2nd is the sweetest but he changed his mind and said that the
last one were much sweeter.


I think that if the comparative and the superlative are the same it leads to
too much ambiguity... don't you think?

- Max

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