Comparative & Superlative adjectives.
How to form adjectives in the higher and highest degrees in English, what are the rules and exceptions. Read on and you'll find the answers...

Comparative adjectives
We use comparative adjectives to show a change or make a comparison:
I'm feeling happier now.
We need a bigger room.
We use THAN when we want to compare one thing with another:
She is five years older than me.
Los Angeles is bigger than Boston.
Spain is a bigger country than Ireland.
When we want to describe how something or someone is changing, we can use two adjectives in the higher degree with AND:
The garden got bigger and bigger.
Everything is getting more and more expensive.
THE is often used with comparative adjectives to show that one thing depends on another:
The faster you drive, the more dangerous it is.
The higher they climbed, the colder it got.
Superlative adjectives
With superlative adjectives we usually use THE:
It was the most interesting day of my life.
That’s the best film I have ever seen.
I’ve got three siblings: Joe is the oldest and Luna is the youngest.

How to form comparative and superlative adjectives
We usually add ‘-er’ and ‘-est’ to monosyllabic adjectives to form comparatives and superlatives:
old | older | oldest |
young | younger | youngest |
If the adjective ends in ‘-e,’ we add ‘-r’ or ‘-st’:
nice | nicer | nicest |
large | larger | largest |
If the adjective ends in a vowel and a consonant, we double the consonant and add the ending ‘-er’ / ‘-est’:
big | bigger | biggest |
fat | fatter | fattest |
If the adjective ends in a consonant and ‘-y’, replace ‘-y’ with ‘-i’ and add ‘-er’ or ‘-est’:
happy | happier | happiest |
silly | sillier | silliest |
MORE / MOST
‘More’ and ‘most’ are used to form adjectives in the higher or highest degree for most two-syllable adjectives and for all adjectives with three or more syllables:
careful | more careful | most careful |
interesting | more interesting | most interesting |
IRREGULAR ADJECTIVES
Watch out for irregular adjectives in the higher and highest degrees:
good | better | the best |
bad | worse | the worst |
little | less | the least |
much | more | the most |
far | further / farther | the furthest / farthest |
SUMMARISING
In a nutshell...
Adjective | Comparative | Superlative | |
One syllable | strong | stronger | the strongest |
ends in a vowel and a consonant | big | bigger | the biggest |
ends in -e | nice | nicer | the nicest |
ends in -y | happy | happier | the happiest |
Two syllables | gentle | gentler / more gentle | gentlest / the most gentle |
Three or more syllables | expensive | more expensive | the most expensive |
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