Comparative & Superlative adjectives

Comparative adjectives:

Short adjectives:

Short adjectives are adjectives that consist of less than 3 syllables. They are either: one syllable only such as: short, tall, small or two syllables such as: easy, funny, pretty, etc.

When comparing between two using these short adjectives, we do as follows:

1. we add (-er) to the end of the adjective.
2. we add “than” after the adjective.

For example:

Sony is tall. Leo is short.

In this case, we have two ways for comparing between them:

1. Sony is taller than Leo.
2. Leo is shorter than Sony.

Another example:

Sara is funny. Amanda is not funny.

Sara is funnier than Amanda.

Notes:

1. If the adjective ends with (-y) preceded by a consonant as in: funny, when we add (-er) we replace the (-y) with (-ier) so it becomes (funnier).
2. There are adjectives that ends with a consonant preceded by a short vowel such as: big, and there are adjectives that ends with a consonant preceded by a long vowel such as: fine. With the short vowel adjectives, we double the last letter so “big” as a comparative adjective becomes bigger.For example: Sara’s bag is bigger than Amanda’s bag.Whereas with  the long vowel adjectives, we do not double the last letter so “fine” as a comparative adjective becomes finer.

For example: For me, juice is finer than milk.

3. There are irregular forms of comparative adjectives, such as:

   good: better than

   bad: worse than

   little: less than

   much, many: more than

   far: further/ farther than

   late: later/ latter than

4. if you would like to express that two things are equal to each other, you have 2 ways:First, as+ adjective + asFor example: Suzan is as tall as Noah.

   Second, the same + noun

   For example: Suzan and Noah are the same height.

5. there is a very common construction that you need to pay attention to:The more………. the more/ the less/ the adjective + (-er)………For example:

   The more you exercise, the more you lose weight.

   The more you exercise, the less weight you gain.

   The more you exercise, the thinner you become.

 

 

Tall adjectives:

Tall adjectives are adjectives that consist of 3 or more syllables. such as: intelligent, sufficient, etc.

When comparing between two using these tall adjectives, we do as follows:

……..more/ less + tall adjective + than……

For example:

Sony is intelligent. Leo is not intelligent.

In this case, we have two ways for comparing between them:

1. Sony is more intelligent than Leo.
2. Leo is less intelligent than Sony.

Superlative adjectives:

Short adjectives:

Short adjectives are adjectives that consist of less than 3 syllables. They are either: one syllable only such as: short, tall, small or two syllables such as: easy, funny, pretty, etc.

When comparing between more than two using these short adjectives, we do as follows:

1. we add “the” before the adjective.
2. we add + (-est) to the end of the adjective.

For example:

Sony is tall. Leo is short. Mea is short.

Sony is the tallest.

We may as well say:

Sony is the tallest of the three.

Another example:

Sara is funny. Amanda is not funny. Louise is not funny.

Sara is the funniest.

Notes:

1. If the adjective ends with (-y) preceded by a consonant as in: happy, when we add (-est) we replace the (-y) with (-iest) so it becomes (happiest).
2. There are adjectives that ends with a consonant preceded by a short vowel such as: big, and there are adjectives that ends with a consonant preceded by a long vowel such as: fine.With the short vowel adjectives, we double the last letter so “big” as a superlative adjective becomes biggest. For example: Sara’s room is the biggest room in our house.Whereas with  the long vowel adjectives, we do not double the last letter so “fine” as a superlative adjective becomes finest.For example: To me, juice is the finest.
3. There are irregular forms of comparative adjectives, such as: good: the bestbad: the worstlittle: the leastmuch, many: the most

   far: the furthest/ the farthest

   late: the latest/ the last

 

Tall adjectives:

Tall adjectives are adjectives that consist of 3 or more syllables. such as: intelligent, sufficient, etc.

When using superlative adjectives between more than two using these tall adjectives,  we do as follows:

……..the most/ the least + tall adjective + ……

For example:

Sony is the most intelligent student in the classroom.

Note:

There is a very common construction that you need to pay attention to:

the most/ short adjective + (est) ………. have/ has + ever + P.P

For example:

This is the most beautiful girl I have ever seen

This is the prettiest girl I have ever seen.