Is there a rule ?

[BackforGood]

When does dry become dryer and when does dry become drier ?

As in tumble..... or as in less wet....

Is it the same rule for Fly and Flyer / flier ?

as in someone who does a lot of travel by plan or a leaflet advertising an event .....

They used to be interchangeable, but at the point at which a drying machine became a dryer, that changed: drier is the adjective, more dry, dryer is a noun.

So a dryer makes your clothes drier.

I think that in the US a flier is one who flies or something which flies, and a flyer is the bit of paper you get handed, but I don't think that rule applies in the UK.

Thanks for your answer

........ though I'm still not 100% sure which to use, where

I often notice tumble drier on here and wonder why. I've never seen hairdrier so wonder where it has come from.

@BackforGood

Thanks for your answer

........ though I'm still not 100% sure which to use, where

If you could put "a" or "the" in front of it, then it is a dryer; if you couldn't then it is drier? That might be a way to remember it, I suppose.

Can't help over flier/flyer, because I don't think that one is clear-cut.

I suspect that dryer/drier will cease to be clear-cut in the UK any time now, because it is a little difficult and most people won't bother, quite apart from reading heavily American-weighted social media. As everyone keeps on saying, the language is only about usage anyway, so if Twitter decides that "cup" also means "saucer", cup will be an alternative word for saucer in five years and the correct meaning in ten. At that point presumably saucer will mean only a UFO...

Thanks

Clothes dryer, tumble dryer. Noun
See it as 'dryer' being a 'thing'

He is drier than me. Adjective.
See 'drier' as describing.

Flier and Flyer seem to vary [US and UK] but i see a flier as someone who flies and flyer as a leaflet. UK