In English grammar the
degree of comparison of an
adjective or
adverb that describes the relational value of one thing with something in another clause of a sentence.
An
Adjective is a word which qualifies (shows how big, small, great, many, few, etc.) a noun or a pronoun is in a sentence.
An adjective can be
attributive (comes before a noun) or
predicative (comes in the predicate part):
e.g. He is a
tall man. (‘tall’ – adjective –
attributive)
This man is
tall. (‘tall’ – adjective – predicative)
An adjective may simply describe a quality, (the
positive); it may compare the quality with that of another of its kind (
comparative degree); and it may compare the quality with many or all others (
superlative degree). In other languages it may describe a very large degree of a particular quality (in Semitic linguistics, called an
elative).
An
Adverb is a word which adds to the meaning of the main verb (how it is done, when it is done, etc.) of a sentence or expression.
It normally ends with ‘ly’, but there are some adverbs that are without ‘ly’:
e.g. She ate her lunch
quickly. He speaks
clearly. They type
fast.
The degree of comparison may be expressed
morphologically, or
syntactically. In English, for example, most
monosyllabic and some
disyllabic adjectives have morphological degrees of comparison:
green (positive),
greener (comparative),
greenest (superlative);
pretty,
prettier,
prettiest; while most polysyllabic adjectives use syntax:
complex,
more complex,
most complex.
Kinds of comparison:
1. POSITIVE DEGREE: Tom is a
tall boy.
In this sentence the word ‘tall’ is an
adjective telling us how Tom is. There is no other person or thing in this sentence used to compare Tom with, but it is the general way of saying about persons, animals and things that they have some quality (here ‘tallness’) above average in general sense. The adjective word ‘tall’ is said to be in the “positive form”.
This comparison is called “
positive degree” comparison.
There are two more comparisons with the ‘
positive form’ of the adjective words. They are:
(i)
Degree of Equality: This comparison is used to compare two persons, animals or things to tell us that they are equal – having the same quality.
There are two cats with the same height and weight, and look the same except for the colour.
Therefore we say:
The brown cat is
as beautiful as the grey cat. (= Both the cats are the same.)
The word “beautiful” is an adjective in the ‘positive form’, and with the conjunction as…as it expresses the ‘
degree of equality’.
(ii)
Degree of Inequality: This comparison is used to compare two persons, animals or things to tell us that they are not equal – not having the same quality.
The brown cat is
not so beautiful as the black & white cat. (= They are
not the same.)
The word “beautiful” is an adjective in the ‘positive form’, and with the conjunction so…as (and the negative ‘
not’) it expresses the ‘
degree of inequality’
2. COMPARATIVE DEGREE: Tom is tall
er than his sister.
In the second sentence the word ‘tall
er’ is an adjective used to compare the ‘tallness’ of these two persons – Tom and his sister – and to tell us that Tom has more of the quality of ‘tallness’.
Therefore, an adjective word which shows the difference of quality between
two groups of persons, animals or things is said to be in the ‘comparative form’. persons, animals or things, or
This comparison is called “
Comparative Degree”.
There are two more degrees of comparison with the ‘comparative form’ of an adjective. They are:
(i)
Parallel Degree: This comparison is used to show that the qualities of two items (adjectives or adverbs) talked about in the given sentence go parallel, i.e. if one quality (adjective or adverb) increases, the other quality (adjective or adverb) increases, and if one quality decreases, the other quality also decreases.
Ex: The bigg
er the box, the heav
ier it is.
(ii)
Progressive Degree: This comparison is used to show that the quality of a thing (adjective or adverb) talked about in the given sentence increases as the time passes, for example:
MON TUE WED THU FRI SAT SUN
25° → 27° → 30° → 33° → 35° → 38° → 40°
It’s getting hot
ter and hot
ter day by day. [as the time passes the temperature increases] OR The days are getting hot
ter and hot
ter.
3. SUPERLATIVE DEGREE: Tom is the tallest students in the class
In this sentence the word (
the) ‘tallest’ is an adjective used to compare the “tallness” of the students
This comparison is used to compare one person, animal or thing with
more than two persons, animals or things (the rest of the group of more than two), and to say that the particular one has the highest degree of that particular quality. The adjective ‘large’ is said to be in the ‘superlative form’.
The next point to be considered is the
forms of the adjectives and adverbs.
There are
three forms – positive form, comparative form and superlative form – and
seven degrees of comparison. That means we make seven degrees of comparison using the three forms of almost every adjective or adverb word. Therefore, it is important for us to discuss the forms before going any further into this topic.
Most adjective or adverb words in their positive form take ‘er’ to change to comparative and ‘est’ to change to superlative form. However, the words ending in ‘e’ take only ‘r’ to change to comparative form and only ‘st’ to change to superlative form. And there are other differences with words having different spelling.
The meaning of an adjective or adverb in Comparative and Superlative form does not change; it is only the form that is changed but not the meaning.
Therefore, depending on the spelling, the adjective or adverb words are separated into groups so that we can memorize the spellings of the words in their different forms easily.
a) The words which end in ‘e’ belong to this group and take only ‘r’ in comparative form and ‘st’ in superlative form:
brav
e → brave
r → the brave
st
larg
e → large
r → the large
st
wis
e → wise
r → the wise
st
nice
→ nice
r → the nice
st
b) The words which end in any letter other than ‘
e’ and/or ‘
y’ belong to this group and take ‘
er’ in comparative form and ‘
est’ in superlative from:
swee
t — sweet
er —
the sweet
est
tal
l → tall
er → the tall
est
youn
g → young
er → the young
est
thick
→ thick
er → the thick
est
smart
→ smart
er → the smart
est
short
→ short
er → the short
est
c) The words which end in ‘y’ preceded by a consonant belong to this group; they lose the last letter ‘y’ and take ‘ier’ in the comparative form and ‘iest’ in superlative form:
happ
y → happ
ier → the happ
iest
eas
y → eas
ier → the eas
iest
heav
y → heav
ier → the heav
iest
dr
y →dr
ier → the dr
iest
wry
→ wrier
→ the wriest
d) The words which end in ‘y’ preceded by a vowel, however, do not change their spelling but take ‘r/er’ in comparative form and ‘st/est’ in superlative form:
gay
→ gay
er → the gay
est
coy
→coy
er → the coy
est
grey
→grey
er → the grey
est
e) the words which end in a ‘consonant’ having a ‘vowel’ before that consonant belong to this group, and have their last consonant letter doubled before taking ‘er’ in comparative form and ‘est’ in superlative form:
r
ed →à r
edder
→ the r
eddest
th
in → th
inner
→ the th
innest
h
ot → ho
tter
→ the ho
ttest
big
→bigger
→ the biggest
f) The words which have ‘two or more vowel sounds/ syllables’ in them belong to this group, and take the word “more” before them in comparative form and the word “ (the) most” in superlative form:
beautiful
→ more beautiful
→ the
most beautiful
difficult
→ more difficult
→ the
most difficult
handsome
→ more handsome
→ the
most handsome
expensive
→ more expensive
→ the
most expensive
diligent
→ more diligent
→ the
most diligent
g) The words which have ‘two or more vowel sounds/ syllables’ in them belong to this group, and end in “some, ow, le, er”, take ‘
er’ in comparative form and ‘
est’ in superlative from:
wholesome
→ wholesomer
→ wholesomerst
narrow
→ narrower
→ narrowest
noble
→ nobler
→ noblest
clever
→ cleverer
→ cleverest
h) the words in this group do not take any suffix or any other word before them, but change their spelling and pronunciation entirely to form new words with the same meaning, of course (irregular)
good/well
→better →à the
best
bad/evil/ill
→ worse →à the
worst
little
→ less/lesser* → the
least
much /many
→ more → the
most
late
→ later/latter* → the
latest/last*
old
→ older/elder* → the
oldest/eldest*
far
→ farther → the
farthest
fore
→ former →the
foremost/first*
fore
→ further → the
furthest
in
→ inner →the
inmost/inner most
up
→ upper → the
upmost/uppermost
out
→ outer/utter → the
utmost/utter most
