What's the comparative form of 'brittle'? Use "more brittle," "less brittle," "too brittle," or "increasingly brittle" -- not "brittler," "fewer brittle," or "less brittleness."
The pattern: more/less/too/increasingly, not an ending
"Brittle" is a gradable adjective, so intensity is built with "more," "less," "too," or "increasingly" plus the adjective itself -- the same pattern most two-syllable-plus adjectives follow in business English. It's not built by inflecting the word or swapping in the noun form.
"We need to make the handoff less brittle before volumes increase" is correct.
"Fewer brittle" is wrong because "fewer" doesn't modify adjectives; "less brittleness" swaps in the noun where an adjective is needed.
"Increasingly brittle" is worth knowing separately -- it's the natural way to describe a system or process that's getting worse over time, without claiming a single sharp before-and-after comparison.
The common mistake: reaching for a single-word inflection
"Brittler" is possible in general English -- you'll find it in casual or literary writing -- but it's unnatural in this business sense. The natural comparative here is "less brittle" or "more brittle," not a single-word inflected form, and using "brittler" in a workplace document reads as an odd choice even when it's technically grammatical.
Want to learn "Brittle" in depth?
Lyra Practice teaches advanced non-native professionals the nuance of high-value expressions like this one, then has you practice using them in realistic work scenarios.
Start learning for free →The safer habit is to default to the more/less pattern every time, the same way you would for most adjectives longer than one syllable, rather than guessing at an inflection that might exist but doesn't fit the register.
Practice scenarios
Practice using brittle in situations like:
- describing a system or process as getting more or less brittle over time
- correcting "fewer brittle" or "brittler" in a draft before it goes out
- choosing between "more brittle" and "increasingly brittle" depending on whether you mean one comparison or a trend
Useful practice phrases:
- "We need to make [X] less brittle before..."
- "[X] is becoming increasingly brittle as..."
- "That's too brittle for production as it stands."