Comparatives

 

Review: Parts of Speech

Grammarians categorize words into the different parts of speech based on their grammatical features, function and position a sentence.

The traditional parts of speech are the noun, pronoun, verb, adjective, adverb, preposition, conjunction and interjection. Below are some examples to illustrate their meaning.

Noun	Pro.	Verb	Adj.	Adverb	Prep.
cactus	I	be	exotic	still	under
electric eel	you	continue	civilized	often	next to
money	we	shine	early	easily	below
alchemy	they	burn	lazy	carelessly	outside
middle-class	she	remember	false	in pairs	opposite
Pocahontas	it	steal	fluent	together	inside
ancestor	me	emigrate	tough	nearly	behind
Siberia	us	invent	sweet	only	near
charisma	them	owe	artificial	naturally	after
fantasy	him	hide	fragile	just	between

 

Comparison

In grammar, comparison expresses a greater or lesser degree of quality of a word.

This is done by inflection (changing the form of a word) or periphrastically (adding an auxiliary word) of certain adjectives and adverbs.

In this section, we look at comparisons involving adjectives. The three degrees or forms of comparison are the base adjective, comparative, and superlative.

The base adjective is the simple degree, such as, “That moose is big”; or “My astronomy professor is very smart.”

 

Comparatives and Superlatives

The comparative compares two nouns or two nominals. For example, “Sao Paulo is bigger than London.” Or “Traveling by airplane is more thrilling than traveling by coach (bus).”

The superlative highlights one among three or more items as having the highest or lowest quality referred to: “Russia is the largest country in the world.”

Forming Comparatives and Superlatives with –er and –est

We form comparatives and superlatives of most one-syllable adjectives by adding -er/-ier and -est/-iest respectively.

Adjective	Comparative	Superlative
new	newer	the newest
cold	colder	the coldest
light	lighter	the lightest

For certain short adjectives, double the last letter.

Adjective	Comparative	Superlative
hot	hotter	the hottest
thin	thinner	the thinnest
red	redder	the reddest

For adjectives ending in y, turn that into an i.

Adjective	Comparative	Superlative
busy	busier	the busiest
easy	easier	the easiest
happy	happier	the happiest

 

Adding more and the most to Base Adjectives

When a base adjective has two or more syllables, we generally form the comparative and superlatives adjectives by adding the words “more” and “the most” respectively in front of it.

Adjective	Comparative	Superlative
beautiful	more beautiful	the most beautiful
dangerous	more dangerous	the most dangerous
expensive	more expensive	the most expensive

Irregular:
fun more fun the most fun

Less and the Least

We can also reduce the intensity of a base adjective (though positive intensifiers are more commonly used). To do this we put less and the least in front of the base adjectives.

Adjective	Comparative	Superlative
rich	less rich	the least rich
lucky	less lucky	the least lucky
powerful	less powerful	the least powerful

 

Irregular Comparison Adjectives

Adjective	Comparative	Superlative
good, well	better	the best
bad	worse	the worst
far	farther, further	the farthest, the furthest

In terms of quantity

Adjective	Comparative	Superlative
little	less	the least
many, much	more	the most

 

Absolute Comparatives and Superlatives

Some adjectives such as square, impossible, eternal, empty, extreme, infinite, perfect, and unique are already absolute in meaning, and therefore cannot be compared. In everyday speech however, phrases like “more perfect”, “rounder”, and the “greenest” are commonly used.

 

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