English

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Formation of Comparative Adjectives

There are two ways to make or form a comparative adjective:
• short adjectives: add "-er"
• long adjectives: use "more"
|Short adjectives |
|1-syllable adjectives|old, fast |
|2-syllable adjectives ending in -y |happy, easy |
|Normal rule: add "-er" |old → older |
|Variation: if the adjective ends in -e, just add -r|late → later |
|Variation: if the adjective ends in consonant, vowel, consonant, double the last consonant |big → bigger |
|Variation: if the adjective ends in -y, change the y to i |happy → happier |
|Long adjectives|
|2-syllable adjectives not ending in -y |modern, pleasant |
|all adjectives of 3 or more syllables |expensive, intellectual |
|Normal rule: use "more"|modern → more modern |
| |expensive → more expensive |


 
With some 2-syllable adjectives, we can use '-er' or 'more':
• quiet → quieter/more quiet
• clever → cleverer/more clever
• narrow → narrower/more narrow
• simple → simpler/more simple
ExceptionThe following adjectives have irregular forms:
• good → better
• well (healthy) → better
• bad → worse
• far → farther/further

Use of Comparative Adjectives

We use comparative adjectives when talking about 2 things (not 3 or 10 or 1,000,000 things, only 2 things).
Often, the comparative adjective is followed by "than".
Look at these examples:
• John is 1m80. He istall. But Chris is 1m85. He is taller than John.
• America is big. But Russia is bigger.
• I want to have a more powerful computer.
• Is French more difficult than English?
If we talk about the two planets Earth and Mars, we can compare them as shown in the table below:
|  |Earth |Mars | |
|Diameter (km) |12,760 |6,790 |Mars is smaller than Earth. |
|Distance from Sun (million km) |150 |228 |Mars is more distant from the Sun. |
|Length of day (hours) |24 |25 |A day on Mars is slightly longer thana day on Earth. |
|Moons |1 |2 |Mars has more moons than Earth. |
|Surface temperature (degrees Celcius) |22 |-23 |Mars is colder than Earth. |


 
Although we use comparative adjectives when talking about two things (not three or more things), infact one or both of the things may be a group of things.
• Mt Everest is higher than all other mountains.
Here, we are talking about hundreds of mountains, but we are still comparing one thing (Mt Everest) to one other thing (all other mountai

Forming Comparative and Superlative Adjectives
One-syllable adjectives.

Form the comparative and superlative forms of a one-syllable adjective...