Superfluous Superlatives

A bit like very unique

Or even most bestest

There used to be branches of the Danish co-op called, in what I do not doubt they fondly imagined was correct English: Superbest.

Grammar is no longer taught or learned at school, so things like "Very dead" to describe the condition of whatever the cat brought in, "very pregnant" to describe a woman nearing the end of her ninth month are just as common as the modified superlatives, and just as wrong, and to me irritating.

After all, death, life, pregnancy or for that matter viriginity are absolute states.

The number of times I hear "small little" is increasing in line with the use of "of" instead of "have" which irritates the hell out of me.

absent - I can hear myself say “very unique” 😂

Any R4 presenter really ought to know better, but the Beeb does seem bent on dumbing down nowadays.

English is a constantly evolving language. This is just part of its evolution.

Vampire queen - Indeed it is. I find myself saying ‘train station’ instead of ‘railway station’ to fit with other people. So far I have not referred to bus seats as ‘chairs’ however.

A totally unique thread with absolute truths.

absent

A bit like very unique

My personal bugbear!

Completely unique is another.

Or 'quite unique'

nanna8

A totally unique thread with absolute truths.

😂

I'll just add the evolving language comment to any post I make in Pedants Corner to save other posters having to do it every time.

nanna8

A totally unique thread with absolute truths.

but are they true facts ?

Thanks, soda 😅

And nanna8 😂🤣

To do a wrecked quote ad absurdum:

Rage, rage against the dying of the right grammar!

I'm not so sure about 'very dead', etc. It is of course wrong when used in the sense of 'highly' or ' exceedingly' but the original Latin meaning is 'truly' as in church Latin 'verily I say unto you' so it may be that there is an underlying meaning of 'truly dead' which persists.

I forget which TV programme it was on, but a little boy was telling how he’d gone to feed his hamster one morning, but, ‘He was a bit dead really.’ 😂 (😰)

sodapop

I'll just add the evolving language comment to any post I make in Pedants Corner to save other posters having to do it every time.

Forgive me, Sodapop, but I feel you have rather missed the point of Pedant's corner.

WE KNOW language evolves, but we happen to believe that not all changes are good or necessary and that some are purely ridiculous.

Most of us are, doubtless, content with new words or expressions that there really is a need for, but not with slovenly use of language, which in my opinion modified superlatives clearly are.