COMPARATIVE AND SUPERLATIVE ADJECTIVES

Comparative adjectives compare two nouns such as ideas, things, people or animals in a sentence.

• The plants were greener in the neighbour’s garden than yours.
• Her bag is creepier than that of our Math teacher.

Superlative adjectives define a noun from most or least or best or worst. In general, superlatives compare a particular item to a group of a similar kind.

• Dogs make the best pets.
• This formula is more confusing than mine.

One-syllable adjectives typically form their comparative with “-er” and their superlative forms with “-est” – pink, pinker, pinkest.

Multi-syllabic adjectives have their comparative forms by adding “more” and their superlative forms by using “most” – dependable, more dependable, most dependable.

At times, some words with two syllables use “-er, -est” and other times, “more, most” ( or “less, least”) – creepy, confusing.

Note that when using these degrees, only one form can be used at a time with the same adjective. For instance, “more creepier” and “most pinkest” are wrong. Therefore, the words should stick with one form.

IRREGULAR COMPARATIVES AND SUPERLATIVES

These comparatives and superlatives do not follow the common way of categorization.