一百多年前，有些英美作家用littler，littlest作为little的比较级和最高级，如 the littlest child;the littler house.这种英语在现代英语中已看不到了。

上面谈到great和large是little和small的对语，这里举两个例子予以说明great和large的区别：

a great man是一个伟大的人物，意指他具有高贵的品质或惊人的成就。

a large man是一个身材高大的人，意指他的外表长得高大，并不指他的品性、能力或工作而言。

a great dog是一条大得令人望而生畏的狗，它带有畏惧的感情色彩。

a large dog 是一条大狗，并无感情色彩在内。

不定式动词的用法不定式动词(Infinitive)的形式是：“to + 原动词”, 如：to come, to go, to play, to read, to listen, to sing等等。

在一般情况下，“to + 原动词”必须靠拢，但在某些情况里，“to”和原动词可以被适当的副词(Adverb)分开，在某些动词句型里，“to”则必须省略。

在什么情况下，不定式动词的两部份可以分开呢?分开的目的何在?在大多数场合里，不定式动词两部分不分开，只有在特殊环境里才准许让副词加入，以便更准确地，更自然地反映某些实际情况。看看下面三个句子：

(1) Bob failed completely to fulfil his duties.

(2) Bob failed to fulfil his duties completely.

(3) Bob failed to completely fulfil his duties.

在(1)里，状态副词“Completely”既可修饰谓语动词“failed”，也可修饰不定式动词“to fulfil”。在 (2) 里，“completely”和被修饰的不定式动词离开太远，力道不足，效果欠佳。在 (3) 里，“completely”夹在不定式动词两部份之间，把它修饰得既自然又贴切;这个位置，在三个句子中，可说是最恰当的了。

同样的，(4)比(5)紧凑;(6)比(7)扎实：

(4) It was wrong for Mr Lim to suddenly quit the job.

(5) It was wrong for Mr Lim suddenly to quit the job.

(6) Is it possible for a chaotic country to further develop its economy?

(7) Is it possible for a chaotic country to develop its economy further?

由于不定式动词的两部分在适当时分开有其优点，这种用法，在现代英语里越来越普遍。例如：

(8) Civil servants were urged to better serve the public.

(9)The Economic Development Board has just announced some new plans to further promote the economic development.

(10) I don't want you to be forever criticising your friends' good efforts.

(11) The new manager wanted the new scheme to be properly implemented.

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