COMPARATIVE AND SUPERLATIVE ADJECTIVES

Comparative adjectives compare one person or thing with another and enable us to
say whether a person or thing has more or less of a particular quality.
Superlative adjectives describe one person or thing as having more of a quality than
all other people or things in a group.
Comparisons with Adjectives: er, est
Use the comparative form er to compare two people, places, or things.
Use the superlative form est to compare three or more people, places, or things.
Adjectives with one syllable add er and est.
A syllable is each part of a word that has a single vowel sound.
Examples of one-syllable words are short, red, sad, tall, straight, and old.
Tall taller tallest
Old older oldest
Nice- nicer- nicest
Hard- harder- hardest
Quick- quicker- quickest
Fast- faster- fastest
Long- longer- longest
When a one-syllable adjective has one consonant, one vowel, and another consonant,
double the last consonant.
Big bigger biggest
Sad sadder saddest
Fat- fatter- fattest
Big- bigger- biggest
Hot- hotter- hottest
Fun- funnier- funniest
Adjectives with two syllables that end in y add er (comparative form) and -
est(superlative form) also. When an adjective ends in y, change the -y to an -i, and
then add -er (comparative form) and est (superlative form). (A.1)
Pretty prettier prettiest
Curly curlier curliest
Ugly- uglier- ugliest
Easy- easier- easiest
Happy- happier- happiest
Early- earlier earliest
Tiny- tinier- tiniest
Heavy heavier- heaviest
Use than after the comparative adjective
Jake is taller than David, but Phil is the tallest of all.
That ant was tinier than a worm.
Today the weather is nicer than yesterday.
Elena woke up earlier than her sister.
The dog was sadder than ever.
This summer was hotter than last summer.
For superlative adjectives. Use the before the superlative adjective.
Kayla is the tallest in the school.
Yesterday was the hottest day of the week.
I am the smartest in my class
She is the happiest girl in the whole word.
Adjectives with more than one syllable (with some exceptions A.1) dont follow the
grammatically rules mentioned above, on this cases the adjectives use more for
comparative form and most for superlative form.
Comparison with more most
Positive: difficult.
Comparative: more difficult.
Superlative: (the) most difficult.
Special adjectives
Some adjectives have two possible forms of comparison (-er/est and more/most)
Positive comparative superlative
Clever cleverer / more clever cleverest / most clever
Common commoner / more common commonest / most common
Likely likelier / more likely likeliest / most likely
Pleasant pleasanter / more pleasant pleasantest / most pleasant
Polite politer / more polite politest / most polite
Quiet quieter / more quiet quietest / most quiet
Simple simpler / more simple simplest / most simple
Stupid stupider / more stupid stupidest / most stupid
Subtle subtler / more subtle subtlest / most subtle
Sure surer / more sure surest / most sure
Practice time
To evaluate the understanding of the activity, each student will pretend that is in the
mall, students must create comparison examples where they show the comparative
adjective form and superlative adjective form.
Feedback
The teacher will go over the exercise to give feedback and reinforce the new
knowledge.