Grammar 101: It Gets Worst and Worst

A friend of mine recently sent me a link to a news article on the housing market in Vancouver. More specifically, the report discusses how some realtors are only acting out of their own self interest, taking advantage of sellers who simply don’t know any better. They tell their clients that the first offer is the best offer, in an effort to get a quick sale, even though they know full well that the first offer is almost never the best offer.

My friend told me to keep reading the rest of the piece, because “it only gets worst and worst.” But is that really the phrase that she should have used? What is wrong with saying things are getting “worst and worst.”

Let’s take things back a step.

When you say that X is worse than Y, you are saying that X is “more bad.” This is roughly equivalent to using words like faster (to mean “more fast”), stronger (“more strong”) and taller (“more tall”). Just remember that saying something like “more fast” is grammatically incorrect; that’s why we say it’s “faster.” You wouldn’t say “more worse,” because the “more” quality is already in the word “worse.”

These are comparative adjectives, because they describe one thing by comparing it with another thing. It’s all relative.

• John’s bagels taste worse than Jerry’s donuts.
• Is bad service or bad food worse for a restaurant’s reputation?
• I complain about my bills, but my money situation could be a lot worse.

In the first two examples above, the comparison between two objects is clear. We compare John’s bagels with Jerry’s donuts. We compare bad service with bad food. We consider their characteristics relative to one another. In the third example, the object of comparison is implied: My money situation could be a lot worse (than it actually is).

The most important difference with the word worst is that it goes beyond simply comparing two objects. It could compare three or more objects. It could also be used in an absolute sense, as in when you are blowing things out of proportion. On a technical level, “worst” is a superlative adjective.

• This is the worst burger I’ve ever eaten.
• The third combo meal provides the worst value on the menu.
• The 2007 season was the worst year for the Beaverton Beavers.

If I were to rank all the burgers I have ever eaten, this one would take last place. In looking at all the items on the menu, the third combo meal is the one that provides the least value for your money. Comparing every season in the history of the Beavers, the 2007 season was the one where they had the poorest win-loss record.

Something that is the worst is worse than all the others in the group. If “worse” can be equated to -er words, then “worst” can be equated to -est words. The red car is the fastest (the “most fast”), the blue bottle is the coldest (the “most cold”), and the pink phone is the cheapest (the “most cheap”). You wouldn’t say the “most worse” or the “most worst,” because the “most” is already in the word “worst.”

The worst case scenario is the one with the most negative outcome. If everything goes as badly as it can possibly go, this is the scenario that would result. And this leads us back to our original idiomatic phrase. It is incorrect to say it “gets worst and worst.”

Instead, the phrase that you want to use is that it “gets worse and worse.” In other words, my friend was trying to tell me that the news article gets progressively worse. The article gets more depressing, more disheartening, and more discouraging. If something “gets worse and worse,” then it continues to deteriorate. It continues to lessen in its “goodness” and grow in its “badness.”

It’s not the worst mistake you can make, but I hope that by reading this series of blog posts, your grammar will get better before it gets worse.