DEGREE OF COMPARISON

 Comparative adjectives are adjectives that compare differences between the attributes of two
nouns.

 These are often measurements, such as height, weight, depth, distance, etc., but they don’t
have to be.

 We can also use comparative adjectives to compare non-physical characteristics.

TYPES OF comparative adjectives

 Short” adjectives are adjectives that have only one syllable, or else have two syllables and end
in “-y.”

 The rules:

=> First, if the adjective ends in “-e,” we just add “-r,” not “-er.” This is to avoid doubling the letter “e.”
For example:

 Large becomes larger, not largeer.

 Cute becomes cuter, not cuteer.

 Safe becomes safer, not safeer.

 Second, if the last three letters of the adjective are in the pattern consonant, vowel, consonant,
we double the final consonant before adding “-er” to the word. For example:

 Big becomes bigger, not biger.

 Sad becomes sadder, not sader.

 Thin becomes thinner, not thiner.

Continued...

 “Long” adjectives are adjectives that have three or more syllables, or adjectives that have two
syllables and do not end in “-y.”
Syllables Rule Examples

Two syllables not ending Insert the word more/less Careful becomes more/less
in “-y” before the adjective. careful.
Insert the word more/less Intelligent becomes
Three or more syllables
before the adjective. more/less intelligent.

 Irregular adjectives

Adjective Comparative form

fun more/less fun

bad worse
good better

well (not ill) better

Using Comparative Adjectives

Noun 1 + be + comparative adjective + than + noun 2

For example:

 “An airplane is bigger than a car.”

  “Mt. Everest is taller than Mt. Fuji.”

 “Tom is faster than John.”

 GRADABLE AND UNGRADABLE ADJECTIVES

 Gradable adjectives are adjectives that can move up and down on a scale of intensity.

 For example, tall is a gradable adjective because something can be a little tall, tall, or very tall.

a bit, a little, much, a lot, and far

 “Jane is much taller than Emily.”

 “Giraffes have far longer necks than elephants.”

 “Is your dad a little bigger than you?”

Ungradable adjectives are adjectives that can’t move up and down on a scale of intensity.

 For example, you cannot say “I am very married.” You are either married, or you aren’t. The
same can be said for the adjective dead: something is either dead or it isn’t.

Expressing Equality and Inequality using as … as

There is another way to express similarities and differences between two nouns using adjectives that
aren’t comparative. To describe two things as equal, we can use the construction as + adjective + as.

For example:

 “The apple is as big as the orange.” (The two are the same size.)

 “The table is as heavy as the desk.” (The two are the same weight.)

SUPERLATIVE ADJECTIVES  

 adjectives that describe the attribute of a person or thing that is the highest (or lowest) in
degree compared to the members of the noun’s group.

Short” Adjectives

=> With one-syllable adjectives, we add “-est” and double the final consonant if preceded by
one vowel. For example:
 big – biggest

thin – thinnest

 slim – slimmest

=> The final consonant is not doubled if it is preceded by two vowels or another consonant, as
in:

 weak – weakest

strong – strongest

 large – largest

small – smallest

 Long” adjectives are adjectives that have three or more syllables, or adjectives that have two
syllables and do not end in “-y.”

For example:

 careful – most/least careful

caring – most/least caring

 gifted – most/least gifted

intelligent – most/least intelligent

 beautiful – most/least beautiful

amazing – most/least amazing

Using Superlative Adjectives

We usually use superlative adjectives when comparing the attributes of someone or something
to others, either in a collective group or among several individuals.

 When we use a superlative adjective in a sentence, we almost always precede it with the word
the.

For example:

 “John is the tallest student in his class.”

 “Daniel always buys the most advanced smartphones available.”

 “Mrs. Phillips is the nicest teacher among the staff.”

 Omitting the group of comparison

 When we use superlatives, it is very common to omit the group that something or someone is
being compared to because that group is often implied by a previous sentence, and to repeat
the group would sound very repetitive.

 For example:

“My brothers are all fast swimmers. John is the fastest, though

Conclusion

 Adjectives describe a quality or characteristic of a noun or pronoun. The basic form of an

adjective is sometimes known as the positive degree.

 But adjectives can also be inflected (changed in form) to compare a quality between two nouns
—this form is known as the comparative degree.

 Similarly, we can also inflect an adjective to identify a noun with the highest (or lowest) degree
of an attribute among a group—this is known as the superlative degree.