Is It Okay to Ask if Someone Is “Any Comfortable”?

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hi, my name is Amanda Levy and I’m calling from Reno, Nevada.

Hey, Amanda, what’s up?

Hi, Amanda, welcome to the show.

I guess it really started because my husband and I, we don’t always agree on terms.

He’ll say close the light, I say turn off the light.

So we just have a, we don’t always agree.

And so we were at a hotel and we were pulling out the fold-out couch.

And I said, oh, I wonder if this is any comfortable.

Because my sister was about to stay on it.

And he said, why did you say any?

And I said, what do you mean?

And he said, that doesn’t make sense.

You could have just said, I wonder if this is comfortable.

And I said, yeah.

And maybe that’s not exactly what I was asking.

I don’t know if I just want it to be comfortable.

I wonder if it’s any comfortable.

And he said, that doesn’t make sense.

So I consulted Google, couldn’t find anything.

So I was just calling you guys, the experts, to see if there is, what am I trying to ask?

Does that make sense?

Thank you.

So it translates to, is this bed at all comfortable?

Right, exactly.

Maybe any just replaces at all.

The degree, what is the degree of comfortable?

Maybe I’ll provide with that.

Yeah, that’s what I was picking up.

It sounds like, what is the degree of comfort there?

I wouldn’t say that it’s standard at all, and certainly not colloquial, which is it’s not idiomatic.

People aren’t saying this all over the place, but it is comprehensible.

Okay.

Usually you find any used this way as an adverb in front of well-known adjectives.

Like, is this any good?

Is this any better?

Is this any, or I can’t wait any longer?

Or is there any more?

But to replace any of those adjectives with another adjective does make sense.

I could see why an English speaker would do that.

Okay.

Right?

Because good and better and longer and more here are all adjectives, and so is comfortable.

Yeah.

Okay.

So he’s right to point out that it’s odd, but you’re okay to use it.

Okay.

Oh, that’s the perfect compromise.

I love it.

Thank you so much, Amanda.

We’ll talk to you again sometime.

All right.

Thank you so much.

I really appreciate it.

Bye-bye.

Take care.

Bye.

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