Degrees and gradations

The twenty-first entry is bem mais, and it lands on the one rule of English degree that a speaker of Portuguese breaks without ever hearing it. Putting bem in front of a comparative is the ordinary way Portuguese strengthens it — bem mais caro, bem melhor, bem mais cedo — and the natural move is to reach for « very », the word that strengthens everything else. « Very » cannot do it. It takes plain adjectives and adverbs only: « very expensive », « very early », « very slowly ». The moment a comparative appears, English swaps its whole set of intensifiers for « much », « far », « a lot », « rather », « considerably » and « a great deal »: « much more expensive », « far better », « a lot earlier ». « Very more expensive » is not clumsy, it is impossible, and it marks a foreign speaker at the first word. Two footnotes save trouble later. « Very » does come back in front of a superlative, where it names the extreme itself: « the very best », « the very last ». And it stays away from « the same », which takes « much » instead: « much the same ».