# Little -- Compartive and Superlative

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-compartive-and-superlative/212369>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [November 10, 2003, 8:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-compartive-and-superlative/212369 "2003-11-10T08:22:38Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Jack\_Sarang](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e8c25b/32.png) [@Jack\_Sarang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jack_Sarang)\
**Post date:** [November 10, 2003, 8:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-compartive-and-superlative/212369/1 "2003-11-10T08:22:38Z")

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Is the comparative and superlative forms of little: Littler and Littlest or more little and most little?

Either way sounds incorrect to me and I believe in modern speech they are never used. Anytime someone says, “He’s littler than me,” people giggle like its a pun. Instead to compare little or make a superlative we simply say smaller and smallest, no?

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**Author:** ![brianmelendez](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/65b543/32.png) [@brianmelendez](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brianmelendez)\
**Post date:** [November 10, 2003, 9:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-compartive-and-superlative/212369/2 "2003-11-10T09:13:45Z")

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> [@](#):
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> \*Originally posted by Jack Sarang \*  
> **Is the comparative and superlative forms of little: Littler and Littlest or more little and most little?**

Yes, those forms are all correct. Like most adjectives, _little_ forms the comparative degree with either the suffix _-er_ or the adverb _more_, and forms the superlative degree with either the suffix _-est_ or the adverb _most_.

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> **Either way sounds incorrect to me and I believe in modern speech they are never used.**

What is your belief based on? If you google _littler than_ or _littlest_, you will get thousands of hits using both forms – including more than a few references to the popular children’s book _The Littlest Angel_ by Charles Tazewell. _Little_ is probably less commonly used in speech than its synonym _small_, but it is far from “never used” in “modern speech.”

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> **Anytime someone says, “He’s littler than me,” people giggle like its a pun.**

One reason may be that, in this example, _me_ belongs in the subjective case: \<He’s littler than I [am]\>.

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> \*\*Instead to compare little or make a superlative we simply say smaller and smallest, no? \*\*

No, _small_ is a different word with its own comparative and superlative forms. It is a synonym of _little_, not a different form of _little_.

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**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\
**Post date:** [November 10, 2003, 9:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-compartive-and-superlative/212369/3 "2003-11-10T09:14:27Z")

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Well, [url=http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=littlest][www.dictionary.com](http://www.dictionary.com)’s defintion for _little_ has:

> [@](#):
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> adj. lit·tler, or less (ls) also less·er (lsr) lit·tlest or least (lst)
> 
> 1. Small in size: a little dining room. See Synonyms at small.

Hope this helps.

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**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\
**Post date:** [November 10, 2003, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-compartive-and-superlative/212369/4 "2003-11-10T15:36:32Z")

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I cannot imagine saying “more little” or “most little”. That said, I usually avoid “littler” and “littlest” since they are not euphonious and would mostly substitute “smaller” and “smallest”.

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**Author:** ![Gorsnak](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gorsnak/32/7587_2.png) [@Gorsnak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gorsnak)\
**Post date:** [November 10, 2003, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-compartive-and-superlative/212369/5 "2003-11-10T16:04:12Z")

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Maybe tomorrow I’ll wanna settle down  
Until tomorrow I’ll just keep moving on