[OT indeed. But it's New Year's day here, so what the hell! A bit of frivolity is good for the soul].
On Wed 01 Jan 2014 at 09:24:36 -0300, Eike Lantzsch wrote: > I found "less worse" somewhat funny. Is that part of modern English? Bad grammar always sounds (or should sound) that way. Part of modern English? Not here it isn't. But give it twenty years or so and who knows? We already have the distinction between 'less' and 'fewer' blurred, with 'less' usurping the function of 'fewer' in the public media. As for 'trade' and 'trades': if grammar is intended to reflect meaning you should try listening to TV and radio news broadcasts commenting on trade union affairs. Leaving off the 's' makes all the difference. > I learned "not as bad as" but English changed so much since then and > "not as bad as" does not seem to convey the same shade of meaning as > "less worse". Stick with what you learned or go with 'less bad'. 'worse' means 'more bad' (it's a comparative). The only shade of meaning I could attach to 'less worse' is 'less more bad', which logically is 'bad'. If 'less worse' is a colloquialism it has no charm or character to lift it out of the lazy speaking category. -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org Archive: http://lists.debian.org/20140101174959.gc5...@copernicus.demon.co.uk
