7/12/22, 1:06 AM grammaticality - Can I say "more funny" or "most funny" instead of "funnier" or "funniest"?

unnier" or "funniest"? - English Language & Usage Stack Exchange

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Can I say "more funny" or "most funny" instead of "funnier" or "funniest"?

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Could you please provide a reference to your answer whatever it is? I know that "funnier" and "funniest" are more correct, but I want to know
whether the less common versions are considered errors or just less eloquent.
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It's funny, but for some words you can do that, some you can't. Most US English speakers would say that you can't say "more funny", though, oddly, there are
contexts whereCustomize settings
"most funny" would be regarded as perfectly fine.
– Hot Licks
Apr 22, 2015 at 0:24

@HotLicks What about "That is a lot more funny than this"?

– StrongJoshua
Apr 22, 2015 at 1:09

Not idiomatic certainly – Hot Licks Apr 22 2015 at 1:23

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7/12/22, 1:06 AM grammaticality - Can I say "more funny" or "most funny" instead of "funnier" or "funniest"? - English Language & Usage Stack Exchange
Not idiomatic, certainly.
 Hot Licks
Apr 22, 2015 at 1:23

I always thought more or most funny were more correct than "funnier".
– www139
Jul 25, 2018 at 3:35

2 Answers Sorted by: Highest score (default)

A search of Google Books for the phrases "the more funny" does turn up a few relevant matches, though some of the matches returned are not
relevant because they involve the form "the more X, the more Y," where either X or Y = "funny things" (for example), so more in those cases is
3 modifying things, not funny. Still, the admirable G.K. Chesterton, in Heretics (1905) uses "more funny" in a situation where, as far as I can see,
he could have used "funnier":

The question of whether Swift was funny in his irony is quite another sort of question to the question of whether Swift was serious in his
pessimism. Surely even Mr. McCabe would not maintain that the more funny "Gulliver" is in its method the less it can be sincere in its
object. The truth is, as I have said, that in this sense the two qualities of fun and seriousness have nothing whatever to do with each
other, they are no more comparable than black and triangular. Mr. Bernard Shaw is funny and sincere. Mr. George Robey is funny and
not sincere. Mr. McCabe is sincere and not funny. The average Cabinet Minister is not sincere and not funny.

Likewise, in an 1890 translation of George Sand, Nanon (1890):

When he next came he expected to have been thanked and kissed for it [the gift of a dress and a hat]. Not at all ; she was dissatisfied
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because her shoes were low and plain,—she wanted high heels and rosettes. This too amused him ; he was always amused by her grand-
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And from Graham Greene, Journey Without Maps (1936):

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They [African native people] wore uniforms, occupied official positions, went to parties at Government House, had the vote, but they
knew all the time they were funny (oh, those peals of laughter!), funny to the heartless prefect eye of the white man. If they had been
slaves they would have had mo dignity; there is no shame in being ruled by a stranger, but these men had been given their tin shacks,
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their cathedral, their votes and city councils, their shadow of self-government; they were expected to play the part like white men and
the more they copied white men, the more funny it was to the prefects.

In all three of these quotations it seems possible that the author's (or translator's) desire to retain a visible more to match the more in the
parallel construction may have prompted the use of "the more funny."

A search for the phrase "the most funny" yields fewer matches because there is no "the most X, the most Y" form to encourage its use. But
matches do occur, sometimes influenced by other parallel forms. For example, from Scottish Notes and Queries (October 1887):

Bruin's brochure will appear under every advantage as to typographic accuracy and beauty, adorned with the most curious cuts, the
most funny and fantastic figures ; the most grotesque letterings, and the most delectable sculptures.

And here is G.K. Chesterton again, in The Thing: Why I Am a Catholic (1929):

In that one extraordinary phrase ["strange heresies and even bearded and wedded clergy," in Truth magazine], The word "strange" is
strange enough. The word "heresy" is stranger. Perhaps at first sight the word "bearded," with its joyous reminiscences of the game of
Beaver, may appear the most funny. "Wedded" is also funny. Even the "and" between bearded and wedded is funny. But by far the
funniest and most fantastic thing in all that fantastic sentence is the word "even."

And from a letter written by Benjamin Disraeli in mid-December 1853, reprinted in Benjamin Disraeli Letters: 1852–1856 (1997):
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So in answer to your question, you most certainly can choose to use "more funny" or "most funny" instead of "funnier" or "funniest," and not be
alone and unprecedented
Customize in your word choice. But as you know, the overwhelming tendency in English runs in the other direction.
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Share Improve this answer Follow answered Apr 22, 2015 at 0:35
Sven Yargs
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7/12/22, 1:06 AM grammaticality - Can I say "more funny" or "most funny" instead of "funnier" or "funniest"? - English Language & Usage Stack Exchange
Sven Yargs
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I think funnier is more of a British thing, so if your British it is correct. The reason is every British person I know says "funnier" and every
American I know says more funny.
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Share Improve this answer Follow answered Nov 3, 2020 at 1:05
user404426
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Citations and sources are part of what makes a good answer. As it stands, this reads like a comment. Please see the help center and take a tour of the site to learn
about gaining reputation, which will allow you to leave a comment.
– livresque
Nov 3, 2020 at 2:16

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