Why the comparative form and superlative form of good is better and best?

Oh gosh I hate being asked questions like that!! =) Hahahah like we can do something about it huh.. I'm also a teacher and sometimes I experience being asked questions like that.. =( Sorry I also don't know the answer =( Huhuh will keep myself updated with this discussion in case another mylotter can answer. Thanks anyways and God bless =)

Your student is really creative! I was told about all these comparative and superlative forms (I actually forgot what they are called till I read your discussion), I just memorized them without questioning it. Sometimes, the grammar is just quite difficult to explain, I suppose. I don't know who built the grammar rules and why they built it this way. I am interested to know why too.

English is a mixture of many different languages. 'Better' and 'Best' as comparative and superlative forms of 'Good' seems to be much older than English (as a distinct language). In fact, similar forms appear in most Germanic languages (German, Dutch and, I believe, Danish, Swedish and Norwegian as well). It is believed that there was once an early Germanic word 'bet' or 'bataz' meaning 'good' which had comparative forms 'better' and 'batizon' respectively. Another branch of the Germanic language used 'gut' or 'god' to mean 'good' and, for some reason, people used the word from one language for the normal form and words from a different language for the comparative and superlative forms. There are many such words, not only in English, but also in other languages. The verb 'to be' uses at least two different forms of the verb in the present tense alone! "I am; you are (thou art); he is; we are; you are; they are" The past tense uses yet another verb ('was', 'were'). At one time these were all distinct verbs which may have expressed different meanings for 'to be' (= existence and = having the property of, for example). In Spanish and Portuguese there are actually two verbs, 'ser' and 'estar' which are used on different occasions in just this way and are both translated by 'to be' in English.

English Language for the most is replete with such outwardly strange grammatical concepts. One should consider these as peculiarities pertinent to a language in question. Okay

most languages have irregular forms. usually of the most common words - this is because people remember them while less used words become standardised. [to be for example is irregular in lots of languages]. one of the reasons english has so many though is because it is really a mixture of several languages and contains elements of their grammar. it is not related to pronunciation.

Nobody knows the answer, it is an exception to the normal rule.

Hello, captainjulier! I understand how you feel because I was also a teacher. All the answers above are correct. For me, teaching is the most difficult job. We can never tell when we make or unmake our students. Your explanation to your student is correct. It is also best to allow all of your students to give their answers with regard to the question. That way, we can gather more information. We can always involve the whole class even in a very small activity like that. Some students are exceptional, and I am sure they always have something new to share. In your case, we already know the answer, it's irregular verb, and irregular verbs form the past tense and past participle by changing the spelling, dropping some letters, or changing y to i, etc. The aim here is to let the class participate in discussion.