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Comparative & Superlative Adjectives

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...


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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.







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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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