"A lot" "A tiny bit" as kinds of values

Authoring Inform 7
1

I’m trying to use kinds of values in actions as a means for the player to vary the degree to which they express their like or dislike of a person. Currently the phrases I’ve thought of to use for these varying degrees consist of a few phrases such as “a lot” or “a tiny bit” which when the player types leads to the parser not understanding it unless the “a” is omitted. Is there a way to get I7 to recognize that the “a” is a necessary part of the value or do I have to come up with new phrases?

Details 

Qualitative is a kind of value. The Qualitatives are immensly, a lot, quite a bit, a decent ammount, a fair bit, somewhat, a little, slightly, a tiny bit and hardly at all.

Expressing like is an action applying to one visible thing and one Qualitative.
Understand "I like [anyone] [qualitative]" as expressing like.

Then when the player types “I like Gwen a lot” they get the response from the parser “I only understood you as far as wanting to take inventory”. Where as “I like Gwen lot” succeeds.

2 Likes
2 
Understand "I like [anyone] a/-- [qualitative]" as expressing like.
6 Likes
3

Understand “Gwen a” as Gwen?

Probably not the right way to go about it, and I suspect it might cause other problems, but technically, if Inform grouped the “a” with Gwen’s name, it would translate “I like Gwen a lot” to “I like Gwen lot”. If you did this with each character’s name, that would make every qualitative that begins with “a” work.

ETA: Do it Zed’s way. That’s way better. (We posted simultaneously.)

2 Likes