Q: In a recent interview a law professor commented: “Florida has the best eminent domain law of any other state.” Without disputing the truth of that statement, was the professor correct?

A: No. As you probably realized, the professor should have used the comparative form of the adjective good; the comment should have been, “Florida has a better eminent domain law than any other state.” To use the superlative form of good, he would have had to say, “Florida has the best eminent domain law of any state.”

In standard English, the superlative form of adjectives is used only for comparing more than two items. If you have two daughters, you cannot use the superlative form to compare their ages. Instead you would have to say that one daughter is the elder, the other daughter the younger. Nor can you say that one choice is the best choice if you have only two choices. Although one distance is the farthest when you compare more than two distances, one distance can only be farther from another if you are comparing two.

And because adjectives can be compared only if they indicate “degree,” some adjectives cannot be compared at all. These are called absolute adjectives. The adjective square is an absolute: an object is either square or it isn't; it cannot be squarer than another, more square or less square.

If you say that something is “more correct” than something else (as some people do), you are changing the meaning of correct from its dictionary definition, “without error,” to the meaning, “approaching accuracy.” In the Preamble to the Constitution, our Founding Fathers changed the meaning of the adjective perfect (an absolute adjective) from the absolute category to the comparative category when they said that their intent was “to form a more perfect union.” The word perfect is defined as “flawless,” but in that context it meant “excellent.”

Both adjectives and adverbs tend to slip from non-comparative status into comparative status. A good example is the adjective unique, derived from the Latin word unus (“one”) originally meant “one of a kind.” But used in phrases like “more unique,” “less unique,” and “somewhat unique,” it lost its original force, and now has become a comparative adjective meaning “unusual.”

So your list of absolute adjectives may differ from mine. I think of empty, full, dead, and alive as absolutes. Do you think of half-alive as possible, except figuratively? How about the word accurate? If you would add more or less to that adjective, it is not an absolute. And how about certain? Can one be more or less certain? In our ever-changing language, more “absolute adjectives” will become “comparative.”

Over the years usage changes. The word very was an adjective meaning “true” in Chaucer's time. Remember Chaucer's knight in “The Canterbury Tales,” whom Chaucer greatly admired because he was “true, perfect and noble”: “a verray parfit gentil knight.” The adjective “very” has been so weakened by use as an intensifier that it has completely lost its meaning as an adjective and now serves only to strengthen the force of whatever adjective it precedes.

In Shakespeare's play, Caesar's comment, “This was the most unkindest cut of all,” was standard English, but today both the double superlative (-est + most) and the adjective unkindest) are no longer standard. On the other hand, in Lewis Carroll's, “Adventures in Wonderland,” Alice's “curiouser and curiouser” was not standard English, just Carroll's whimsical use of poetic privilege.

The word curiouser brings up the decision about when to add -er and -est to form the comparative and superlative forms and when to add more and most. To form the comparative and superlative of one-syllable adjectives, add -er or -est (larger, largest). For adjectives of three or more syllables, add more and most and less and least: (more interesting, least interesting).

But to form the comparative and superlative of two-syllable adjectives, you have a choice: add either -er and -est or add more and most to form the comparative and superlatives: (likelier, likeliest or more likely, most likely). Two-syllable adjectives that begin with the prefix -un (like unhappy and unfriendly are flexible, in that they can either add more, most and less, least or -er and -est.

Those two-syllable adjectives and adverbs that end in -y and -ly are also flexible. It's your choice whether you say prettier, prettiest or more pretty, less pretty and least pretty. It's also your choice about which comparative and superlative forms you add to adverbs like softly, cozily, and friendly.