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Comparative Forms of Adjectives
In today's Grammar HELP! Student Handbook - Online! lesson, we continue our unit on Adjectives and Adverbs. Today we focus on comparative forms of adjectives.
You can read our prior lesson, Demonstrative Adjectives, before you begin today with the exercises.
What's Wrong With The Sentence?
Life here is more expensive and
harder than life in my native country.
Comparative Forms
What Is a Comparative Form?
Use the comparative form of an adjective when you are comparing two items to each other.
How Do You Form the Comparative and Superlative Forms of an Adjective?
This depends on several factors. It depends on:
-
how many syllables the adjective has, and
-
what letter of the alphabet the adjective ends in.
| Adjectives That Have ONE (1) Syllable ("Short" Adjectives) | |
|
e.g. few, tall, large, sad |
|
| comparative | Add ~er |
| few | We have fewer criminals. |
| sad | She seems to get sadder and sadder. |
| superlative | |
| Exceptions | |
| good | comparative: better |
| bad | comparative: worse |
| Multi-syllable Adjectives that End in the Letter ~y | |
| e.g.
happy, easy, silly |
|
| 1) First, eliminate the ~y. | |
| 2) Then: | |
| comparative | add ~ier |
| happy | We have fewer criminals |
| sad | She seems to get sadder and sadder. |
| superlative | |
| One-syllable Adjectives that End in the Letter ~y | |
| e.g.
shy, gay |
|
| Follow the rule
in Chart #1, above, for "short" adjectives. There are two (2) acceptable ways of spelling this. |
|
| comparative | |
| shy | I was shier when I was younger. |
| I was shyer when I was younger. | |
| superlative | |
| Multi-syllable Adjectives that Do Not End in the Letter ~y | |
| e.g. beautiful, interesting | |
| comparative | add more ~ (than) |
| expensive | Private schools are more expensive than public schools. |
| interesting | The book is more interesting than the movie. |
| add less ~ (than) | |
| Public schools are less expensive than private schools. | |
| The movie is less interesting than the book. | |
| superlative | |
Word Order
When using two or more superlative adjectives in a phrase:
-
place the adjectives that use an adjective ending (~est) first.
-
place the adjectives that use a helping word (more, most, etc.) last.
What's Wrong With This Sentence?
Life here is more expensive
and harder than life in my native country.
Solution:
Life here is harder and
more expensive than life in my native country.
Next... Superlative Forms of Adjectives
Join us for our next lesson, "Superlative Forms of Adjectives".
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