Korean Job Discussion Forums

[mrsquirrel]

What do you use?

Korean talking dic says handsomer is more commonly used than more handsome.

I don't think I have ever used handsomer or handsomest.

[oxfordstu]

When using a comparative adjective that has 2 syllables and doesn't end in -y, then it is more handsome. Same with the superlative most handsome

The Korean you're talking to is completely wrong.

[mrsquirrel]

That is what I though,

It's in her talking dictionary.

I was sure it was wrong but it was there staring me in the face.

Anybody else disagree?

[mrsquirrel]

[ilovebdt]

More handsome and most handsome.

Some of those electronic dictionaries are crap.

ilovebdt

[mrsquirrel]

Dunno looks like old D.ic.kens used it. so it must be right

[antoniothegreat]

i have also soon books that say "my dog is very cute to me, he waves his tail when i am around." it was in the book, but i sure as heck dont say that.

trust your instincts, not the books or dictionaries on things like that. you might not be able to explain why, but USUALLY you are right.

[Ya-ta Boy]

I split the difference. I don't like 'handsomer' and 'most handsome'. Both sound dorky to me, so I say: Joe is more handsome than Tim, but Sam is the handsomest man in that movie.

[jinju]

I say most handsomerestest ... because I am

[antoniothegreat]

[Woland]

From the Compleat Lexical Tutor (www.lextutor.ca), using corpora totaling 4 million words (British and American, spoken and written):

handsomer - two examples:

1 y Mountains, and John was surely one of the handsomer and brighter young men around Pittsburgh.
2 hiseled features. But she'd known plenty of handsomer guys, and, conceding his good looks, what wa

handsomest - 1 example:

1 al. Just wait till she saw the Mare's foal. Handsomest colt in all Kentucky. Strong too, up on his

more handsome - 0 examples

most handsome - 2 examples:

1 ish. IT is truly odd and ironic that the most handsome and impressive film yet made from Miguel de
2 verdoor in the early Palladian style is the most handsome in the house. The King's bedroom is domina

There is a third example of 'most handsome' in the corpora, but it is not a superlative.

The first examples with 'handsomer' and 'most handsome' each suggests that parallelism, in different directions, may have a determining effect on the choice of form.

The second example under 'handsomer' doesn't work for me with most handsome, and I wonder if rhythm has something to do with it. This is pure speculation, though.

The second example of 'most handsome' seems to me to possibly involve contrastive stress, which would require a more/most form.

Still, five examples isn't a lot, even if it does show that native speakers use both, and perhaps about equally. So, I went to Google for a quick and dirty hit count. (NB: I have posted before on the value and limits of using Google this way. I won't repeat myself.)

handsomer - 239,000 hits

handsomest - 470,000 hits

more handsome - 244,000 hits

most handsome - 416,000 hits (including Juche Girl: http://juchegirl.blogspot.com/2006/06/dear-leader-most-handsome-leader.html)

Usage appears to be about equal. I suspect that some portion of the 'most handsome' forms are false superlatives, as I saw in the CLT data. It remains to be determined what factors influence the actual choice of one form or the other, though, as I have suggested before, parallelism and emphatic/contractive stress may play roles.

handsomerestest - 1 hit (http://flurryblob.blogspot.com/2007_02_01_archive.html). It's a 16-yr-old Chinese girl, jinju; are you sure you want to claim her as a linguistic influence:

[jinju]

[Woland]

[CasperTheFriendlyGhost]

[jodemas2]