Handsomer? Beautiful Man? Handsome Lady?

In lecturing a group of pampered pupils about the deadly disease leukemia, otherwise known as blood cancer, Danny Whyte came into my mind. I briefed them about Danny Whyte. How he was afflicted with leukaemia, became an ambassador of bone marrow donation to leukemics and subsequently killed by the disease.

I was quick to add that, “Danny Whyte was such a handsome man. But I was handsomer than him” The pupils in unison went like, “handsomer!?” “Ahh!” One fat girl with glasses seated in front me beamed with smile and said freely, “What kind of English is this? You are funny papa”. I was not surprised by the boldness in the pupils in red flagging me. These are pupils in arguably the best private school in Tamale.

After the dissonance, I repeated myself. I mean handsomer! Let me digress a bit.

In English, adjectives are in three degrees: positive, comparative and superlative. Let's consider the word “great”. The positive: great, comparative: greater and superlative: greatest.

Both monosyllabic and disyllabic words form its comparative and superlative by taking “-er/-ier” and “est/-iest” respectively.

Monosyllabic word in the language of the class teacher is a word that can be pronounced without a single pause or break. Monosyllabic words: great, white, plain, wild, big, old etc. These words are pronounced in one breath.

Adjective Degrees: - white - whiter - whitest
Disyllabic words are pronounced with a single pause or break. The break divides the word into two pronounceable groups known as syllabic – pronounced as though it is two words. Disyllabic words: bony (bo-ny), dirty (dir-ty), handsome (hand-some), extreme (ex-treme), ugly (u-gly), common (com-mon) etc.

Adjective Degrees: - common - commoner - commonest

A trisyllabic word by inference is breakable into three pronounceable syllabics or groups. Trisyllabic words: beautiful (bea-ti-ful), skeletal (ske-le-tal), important (im-por-tant) etc. Trisyllabic to decasyllabic words all form their comparative and superlative by taking “more” and “most” respectively.

Adjective Degrees: - beautiful - more beautiful - most beautiful

So, I was not wrong for saying “handsomer” instead of “more handsome” even though the latter is also widely accepted.

I added, “It is only in Ghana that some adjectives are reserved for men and women and sometimes the neuter. Adjectives are merely describing words and any adjective of any form and origin can be used to describe either sexes. I hate it (feel embarrassed) when people give me the disapproval look when I refer to my female friends as being 'handsome'. The looks are often graver with blending 'beautiful' with the masculine.”

It is not wrong to say:
- Mulaika gave birth to a beautiful bouncing baby boy.

- Ugly men always desire handsome women.
- This is a star-studded movie of all the beautiful men in Ghana.

If we can indiscriminately use “ugly” as an adjective for both sexes, why can't we use “beautiful” and “handsome” similarly. I have considered the oddities of grammar rubrics though – but this one clearly doesn't reconcile with the illogical aspect of logic.

However, for every grammar unit, there is always an exception to the rule. So, the aforesaid elaborations have its exceptions – but for time I would have anatomized all what I know on this topic.

I am no authority; not a pedagogue! I am not AS Hornby. I am a science student. But I used to be a nerd of language rubrics and I am just trying to recall and share what I know with you.

Abdulai Hanan R. Confidence
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The writer is a professional nurse, a fan of neologism and a slave of grammatolatry.