There may be one advantage to Donald Trump being President of the United States (only one!), though it’s quite a selfish one: he certainly gives me a lot of food for thought. Sometimes I really don’t want to write about him, or even think about him, or exist in the same universe as him, but he can be hard to ignore, particularly when he demonstrates his unusually dysfunctional relationship with the English language.
Last week he gave us another addition to the evergrowing list of did-he-actually-just-say-that? moments:
First of all, this is a classic example of irony: boasting about how humble you are; being the exact opposite of humble while simultaneously declaring yourself to be humble. It’s both classic irony and classic Trump narcissism. It also made me think about the phrase more humble, and whether that can be considered grammatically correct.
The short answer is no, it’s not strictly correct, though it’s far from Trump’s worst crime against the English language. You see, the correct form should really be humbler. But, I can forgive Trump his error, if nothing else, because humbler seems to contradict the rule for making comparative adjective forms I mentioned here. Humble is two syllables long, so shouldn’t it then become more humble, and the most humble?
Well, no, and the reasons couldn’t be simpler. First of all, humbler is SIMPLER to say than more humble. It’s shorter and comes fairly naturally to the tongue. Because, while humble does have two syllables, so too does humbler. We’re not really making the word significantly longer by adding the R, so it sounds just like comparative forms of monosyllabic adjectives like shorter, longer, etc. Another similar word, if you haven’t spotted it already, is simpler. By changing simple to simpler, we lose the vowel sound from the second syllable, and simpler therefore also has two syllables, making it sound fairly natural.
Contrast other two-syllable adjectives which wouldn’t drop a syllable by adding -er: perfecter, handsomer, pleasanter, carefuller. By gaining a third syllable, they become too long and sound awkward, so they follow the rule and take more.
We therefore now have a further example of why you should never use Donald Trump as a model of competent English. Or as a model of competent anything, frankly.
English-Language Thoughts 
Oh, Trump. Trust him to mess everything up, from the NFL to the English language. What next? Maybe he’ll somehow mess global warming up so much that it disappears altogether.
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I think we should try reverse psychology on him: “Hey Donald, the fake news wants you to combat climate change!” He’ll then try to make it worse but then mess that up and get rid of it.
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Haha you should infiltrate the white house and spread that plan!
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i think along these lines:
https://englishcode.wordpress.com/2017/10/17/what-would-you-do/
stay in touch
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and “particularly” is spelled wrong … i think … you have: particulalrly
🙂 JA
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the effective parts of HUMBLE are HUM and BLE. The BL represents FALL or FALLEN. The BL goes to PL like PLUNGE or PALOS ( Spanish for falls) . I think the HUM is like the HON in honest – and refers to ONE … morphing … a humble person is a fallen one in some sense – but, it is used as a positive … not to brag etc. ..still good to know its roots .. 🙂 https://englishcode.wordpress.com/clc-etymology/
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That’s an interesting etymology, it’s logical enough when you think about it that a humble person would also be a “fallen” one, as being humble is like putting yourself in a lower position than others. Not that I can imagine Trump doing that!
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Another interesting gramatical insight! It’s a wonder anyone learns to speak English, with all it’s strange hypocritical rules! (It’s no wonder that Donald Trump can’t speak it all that well though)
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His grasp of English always ceases to amaze me!
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English is largely a simple Nordic adaptation of the MUCH more complicated Germanic – OLD English. But all the real meanings of our words are buried there in Old English.
and yes, the PLE in simPLE represents the same “fall” that’s in humBLE.
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Hilarious and educational! I love it!
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Thanks 😊
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Two silable adjectives, ending in LE accept both forms of comparison, as well as, RE and Ow..I’m Brazilian and I know that, what heck of native English speakers are you guys? And feel smarter than Trump?? All the same junk!!👍
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