Adjectives

THE ADJECTIVE: COMPARATIVE AND SUPERLATIVE FORM

The comparative:

a. USE: we use it when we want to compare two people, objects or
animals.
b. FORM:

FORM

ADJECTIVE

COMPARATIVE

one or two syllables:
add ‘-er’ at the end of the
adjective + THAN after
the adjective

long
short
tall

longER THAN
shortER THAN

tallER THAN

more than two syllables:
add MORE/LESS +
adjective + THAN

interesting
beautiful
dangerous

MORE/LESS interesting

THAN
MORE/LESS beautiful

THAN
MORE/LESS dangerous

THAN

c. SPECIAL SPELLING RULES:

I.Adjectives ending in ‘-e’: add only ‘-r’ at the end:

large - largeR THAN
nice - niceR THAN

II. One syllable adjectives ending in consonant + vowel + consonant:
double the last consonant:

big - bigGER THAN
hot - hotTER THAN

III. Adjectives ending in ‘-y’: delete ‘-y’ and add ‘-ier’:

pretty - prettIER THAN
heavy - heavIER THAN

We can use ‘as + adjective + as’ to show that two things, people, etc are the same.
We can use ‘not as + adjective + as’ to show that two things, people, etc are not the
same.

The superlative:

a.USE: we use it when we want to compare people, objects or animals to
show which one is the ‘most’ of something.

b. FORM:

FORM

ADJECTIVE

SUPERLATIVE

one or two syllables:
THE + add ‘-est’ at the
end of the adjective

long
short
tall

THE longEST
THE shortEST
THE tallEST

more than two syllables:
THE + add MOST +
adjective

interesting
beautiful
dangerous

THE MOST interesting
THE MOST beautiful
THE MOST dangerous

c. SPECIAL SPELLING RULES:

I.Adjectives ending in ‘-e’: add only ‘-st’ at the end:

large - THE largeST
nice - THE niceST

II. One syllable adjectives ending in consonant + vowel + consonant:
double the last consonant:

big - THE bigGEST
hot - THE hotTEST

III. Adjectives ending in ‘-y’: delete ‘-y’ and add ‘-iest’:

pretty - THE prettIEST
heavy - THE heavIEST

IRREGULAR ADJECTIVES

Some adjectives don’t follow any of the rules above. They are called

irregular adjectives because of that and they have a special form both for the
comparative and the superlative. Here is a (very short) list with some of these
irregular adjectives:

ADJECTIVE

COMPARATIVE

SUPERLATIVE

good

better than

the best

bad

worse than

the worst

many/much

more than

the most

far (distance)

farther than

the farthest

far (extent)

further than

the furthest

little (amount)

less than

the least

old

elder than (only for
people)
older than (for people and
things)

the eldest (only for
people)
the oldest (for people and
things)