16 Jun Comparison of adjectives in English.
Joe Cocker sang, „You are so beautiful”. Probably everyone knows this song. Just by reading the title of the song, we can learn a new adjective: “beautiful”.
Why is it worth knowing other adjectives as well and being able to use them in a sentence? This is what you will find out from this article.
Adjectives enable us to describe an object; thanks to them, we can talk about it with more precision and accuracy.
At the beginning, we suggest studying various adjectives and their opposites (PARTS I-III, PARTS IV-VI). If it turns out that you know them very well, we suggest learning how to compare them. What for? To describe the nouns more accurately.
The way of presenting the comparison of adjectives is called “the flipped classroom First, read the adjectives below; then try to make a conclusion, and finally read our explanations.
….. – the comparative form – the superlative form
small – smaller – the smallest
cheap – cheaper – the cheapest
fast – faster – the fastest
The conculusion: as you see, in the comperative form, we add „-er” to the adjective, but in the superlative we use “the” before the word and add the ending “-est”.
Now, let us look at the examples below:
big – bigger – the biggest
hot – hotter – the hottest
sad – sadder – the saddest
The conclusion: in some one-syllable adjectives, we double the last consonant.
And now, a new tidbit:
happy – happier – the happiest
busy – busier – the busiest
ugly – uglier – the ugliest
The conclusion: in the case of adjectives ending with the letter “-y”, we replace it with “i” and the typical endings mentioned in the examples above.
Comparison of adjectives – exceptions:
good – better – the best
bad – worse – the worst
far – farther – the farthest
far – further – the furthest
The comparison of two- and three-syllable adjectives.
In English there are also long adjectives like “beautiful”, which have to be properly compared as well.
beautiful – more beautiful – the most beautiful
expensive – more expensive – the most expensive
dangerous – more dangerous – the most dangerous
The conclusion: in the case of longer adjectives in the comparative form, we add „more” before the word, and in the superlative form – “the most”.
beautiful – less beautiful – the least beautiful
expensive – less expensive – the least expensive
dangerous – less dangerous – the least dangerous
Example sentences:
My house is smaller than Tom’s apartment. Tom’s apartment is bigger than my house.
He is the cleverest student in the class. He is the most intelligent student in the class.
Worksheets:
If you want to practise this grammar aspect, use our worksheets which will surely help you achieve that goal. Good luck 🙂