"Warp" <war### [at] tagpovrayorg> wrote in message news:3bf216a9@news.povray.org...
> Ken <tyl### [at] pacbellnet> wrote:
> : I'll teach them to stop using "that" word if you stop using "drastical" :)
>
>   Some english words confuse me a lot.
>   The word "drastically" exists. By logic, it would come from the word
> "drastical" (drastical + ly = drastically).
>   But no, it comes from the word "drastic".
>   By reverse logic, it would mean that drastic + ly = drasticly.
>   But no, it's drastic + ly = drasticALly.
>   It makes no sense.

Sure it does.

It's 'drastic' + '- ally'.
'Drastic' is an adjective. Adding the suffix '-ally' makes it an adverb.

A 'drastical' (or drasticle) would be a neologistic noun representing
that which is a particle of drasticness.

'-ally' is the suffix used to make an adverb from an adjective that
ends in '-ic' when there is no '-ical' form.

Incidentally (and not accidentally), these grammaricals arose from
borrowed Greek. (See? There is no 'incidentical' or 'accidentical' -
those words sound wrong, eh?).

"English makes sense except when it doesn't".

Just to round things off -

'Identical" is an adjective. The word ends in '-ical', The adverb
formed from 'identical' is 'identically'. In this case it is the suffix '-ly'
added to the '-ical' adjective to make the adverb. Sometimes it is hard to
tell if the adverbial suffix appended to an adjective is '-ly' or '-ally'.

So, why is drastic - 'drastic' and identical is not 'identic' ?  I don't know,
it's all Greek to me. What's worse is that 'identic' exists as an adjective, but
means something completely different than 'identical'. ('identic' is a
diplomatic
term used diplomatically by diplomats in a diplomatical manner.)

These -ics, -icals, -lys, and -allys are everywhere.

It almost seems conspiratorical.

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