Level: beginner
Comparative adjectives
We use comparative adjectives to show change or make comparisons:
This car is certainly better, but it's much more expensive.
I'm feeling happier now.
We need a bigger garden.
We use than when we want to compare one thing with another:
She is two years older than me.
New York is much bigger than Boston.
He is a better player than Ronaldo.
France is a bigger country than Britain.
When we want to describe how something or someone changes we can use two comparatives with and:
The balloon got bigger and bigger.
Everything is getting more and more expensive.
Grandfather is looking older and older.
We often use the with comparative adjectives to show that one thing depends on another:
The faster you drive, the more dangerous it is.
(= When you drive faster, it is more dangerous.)The higher they climbed, the colder it got.
(= When they climbed higher, it got colder.)
- Comparative adjectives 1
- Comparative adjectives 2
Superlative adjectives
We use the with superlative adjectives:
It was the happiest day of my life.
Everest is the highest mountain in the world.
That’s the best film I have seen this year.
I have three sisters: Jan is the oldest and Angela is the youngest.
- Superlative adjectives 1
- Superlative adjectives 2
-
GapFillTyping_MTQxNzU=
How to form comparative and superlative adjectives
We usually add –er and –est to one-syllable words to make comparatives and superlatives:
| old | older | oldest |
| long | longer | longest |
If an adjective ends in –e, we add –r or –st:
| nice | nicer | nicest |
| large | larger | largest |
If an adjective ends in a vowel and a consonant, we double the consonant:
| big | bigger | biggest |
| fat | fatter | fattest |
If an adjective ends in a consonant and –y, we change –y to –i and add –er or –est:
| happy | happier | happiest |
| silly | sillier | silliest |
We use more and most to make comparatives and superlatives for most two syllable adjectives and for all adjectives with three or more syllables:
| careful | more careful | most careful |
| interesting | more interesting | most interesting |
However, with these common two-syllable adjectives, you can either add –er/–r and –est/–st or use more and most:
| common cruel gentle handsome likely |
narrow pleasant polite simple stupid |
He is certainly handsomer than his brother.
His brother is handsome, but he is more handsome.
She is one of the politest people I have ever met.
She is the most polite person I have ever met.
The adjectives good, bad and far have irregular comparatives and superlatives:
| good | better | best |
| bad | worse | worst |
| far | farther/further | farthest/furthest |
- How to form comparative and superlative adjectives
Comments
Why the consonant of the word 'new' is not duplicated, following the rule that says vowel + consonant we double the consonant??
Like 'new, newwer ,newwest'
But the right ends up being new, newer newest
hi
Comparatives:used to compare diferents between the two objects they modif(smaller,faster,higher)..
Example
My house is larger than hers
Superlative:used to describe an object which is at the upper or lower limit of a quality(the tallest,the smallest, the fastest)....
Example
This is the smallest box I've ever seen
A quantifier is a word or phrase which is used before a noun to indicate the amount or quantity: 'Some', 'many', 'a lot of' and 'a few' are examples of quantifiers. Quantifiers can be used with both countable and uncountable nouns.
I think this is an excelent material, I clarified some questions that I had.
This helps me a lot to review the knowledge I have!
The explanation was good but I would put some images to do the topic easier.
The information obtained is very useful and helps a lot to better understand this topic of superlatives and comparatives
this was a very useful information... it has complete information about how to use comparatives and superlatives in the correct way :)
excellent explanation and very easy to understand.
I would like to remember the most common mistake is using the superlative when there are only two items.
For example:
Incorrect: Mary was the tallest of the two girls.
Correct: Mary was the taller of the two girls.
When a word with three or more syllables is used as a comparative, –er and –est are typically not used, but rather “more” and “most” are used before the adverb.
Pages