COMPARATIVE & SUPERLATIVE ADJECTIVES

COMPARATIVE & SUPERLATIVE ADJECTIVES

Comparative Adjectives

We use comparative adjectives to show change or make comparisons:

This car is certainly better, but it's much more expensive.
I'm feeling happier now.
We need a bigger garden.

We use than when we want to compare one thing with another:

She is two years older than me.
Narayanghad is much bigger than Pokhara.
He is a better player than Ronaldo.
France is a bigger country than Britain.

When we want to describe how something or someone changes we can use two comparatives with “and”:

The balloon got bigger and bigger.
Everything is getting more and more expensive.
Grandfather is looking older and older.

We often use “the” with comparative adjectives to show that one thing depends on another:

The faster you drive, the more dangerous it is.
(= When you drive faster, it is more dangerous.)

The higher they climbed, the colder it got.
(= When they climbed higher, it got colder.)

Superlative Adjectives

We use “the” with superlative adjectives:

It was the happiest day of my life.
Everest is the highest mountain in the world.
That’s the best film I have seen this year.
I have three sisters: Jan is the oldest and Angela is the youngest.

How to form comparative and superlative adjectives

We usually add “–er” and “–est” to one-syllable words to make comparatives and superlatives:

old	older	oldest
long	longer	longest

If an adjective ends in –e, we add –r or –st:

nice	nicer	nicest
large	larger	largest

If an adjective ends in a vowel and a consonant, we double the consonant:

big	bigger	biggest
fat	fatter	fattest

If an adjective ends in a consonant and –y, we change –y to –i and add –er or –est:

happy	happier	happiest
silly	sillier	sillies

We use more and most to make comparatives and superlatives for most two-syllable adjectives and for all adjectives with three or more syllables:

careful	more careful	most careful
interesting	more interesting	most interesting

However, with these common two-syllable adjectives, you can either add –er/–r and –est/–st or use more and most:

common

cruel

gentle

handsome

likely

narrow

pleasant

polite

simple

stupid

He is certainly handsomer than his brother. (rarely used)
His brother is handsome, but he is more handsome. (mostly used)
She is one of the politest people I have ever met. (rarely used)
She is the most polite person I have ever met. (mostly used)

The adjectives good, bad and far have irregular comparatives and superlatives:

good	better	best
bad	worse	worst
far	farther/further	farthest/furthest

Source:

Moore, Kirk, and Aramis Soto. “Comparative and superlative adjectives | LearnEnglish.” British Council, https://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/grammar/english-grammar-reference/comparative-superlative-adjectives. Accessed 9 March 2023.

Comments

CONTENTS OF THE DEAD MAN’S POCKET

Contents of the Dead Man’s Pocket is a short story by Jack Finney , originally published by both Good Housekeeping and Collier’s in 1956 . The story is a suspenseful tale of a man who travels onto a hazardous window ledge (ridge) to retrieve the papers he believes will make his career. Finney was a prolific (creative) writer, recognized for his science fiction novels The Body Snatchers and Time and Again , as well as thrillers, such as 5 Against the House . The story begins with protagonist Tom Benecke at a desk in the living room of his eleventh-floor apartment in New York City. He is preparing to type up a handwritten memo to be distributed to his office. He finds small ways to distract himself from starting. First, he tries to open a window, but it isn’t easily opened. He has to use quite a bit of force on the frame. Once the window is open, he continues to ignore the typewriter, crossing the room to talk t...

BBS First Year English Question Paper with Possible Answers (TU 2021)

FORMULAS OF ALL THE 12 TENSES

S + V + O || Subject + Verb + Object Simple Past Tense S + Past Form of the Verb + O E.g. He wrote a letter. Past Continuous Tense S + was/were + V + ING + O E.g. I was writing a letter. Past Perfect Tense S + had + Past Participle (PP.) of the Verb + O E.g. She had written a letter. Past Perfect Continuous Tense S + had been + V + ING + O + since/for E.g. We had been writing a letter since morning. Simple Present Tense S + V + O E.g. You write a letter. Present Continuous Tense S + is/am/are + V + ING + O E.g. She is writing a letter. Present Perfect Tense S + has/have + Past Participle (PP.) of the Verb + O E.g. They have written a letter. Present Perfect Continuous Tense S + has been/have been + V + ING + O + since/for E.g. You have been writing a letter for three hours. Simple Future Tense S + will/shall + V + O E.g. We shall write a letter. Future Continuous Tense S +...

Summary and Analysis of Only Daughter by Sandra Cisneros

ONLY DAUGHTER -Sandra Cisneros Born into a working-class family in 1954, Sandra Cisneros was the daughter of a Mexican-American mother and a Mexican father. Only Daughter originally appeared in Glamour magazine in 1990. Cisneros through this essay describes the difficulties of growing up as the only daughter in a Mexican-American family of six sons. Historically, sons have been valued over daughters in most cultures, as reflected in the following proverbs: “A house full of daughters is like a cellar full of sour beer” (Dutch); “Daughters pay nae [no] debts” (Scottish); “A stupid son is better than a crafty daughter” (Chinese); and “A virtuous son is the sun of his family” (Sanskrit). Contemporary research suggests that while the preference for male children has diminished considerably in industrialised nations, a distinct preference for sons continues among many cultures in Asia and the Middle East, raising concerns among medical ethicists worldwide. And, even within ...

Summary and Analysis of My Mother Never Worked

MY MOTHER NEVER WORKED Bonnie Smith - Yackel SYNOPSIS In the essay “ My Mother Never Worked ,” Bonnie Smith-Yackel recollects the time when she called Social Security to claim her mother’s death benefits. Social Security places Smith-Yackel on hold so they can check their records on her mother, Martha Jerabek Smith . While waiting, she remembers the many things her mother did, and the compassion her mother felt towards her husband and children. When Social Security returns to the phone, they tell Smith-Yackel that she could not receive her mother’s death benefits because her mother never had a wage-earning job. A tremendous amount of irony is used in this essay. The title, in itself, is full of irony; it makes readers curious about the essay’s point and how the author feels about the situation. Smith-Yackel uses the essay to convey her opinion of work. Her thesis is not directly stated; however, she uses detail upon detail to prove her mother did work, just not in the eyes of ...

PROFESSIONS FOR WOMEN - Virginia Woolf (1882-1941)

Summary : Virginia Adeline Woolf (1882-1941) was an English novelist and essayist, regarded as one of the foremost modernist literary figures of the twentieth century. She was one of the leaders in the literary movement of modernism. The speech of Professions for Women was given in 1931 to the Women’s Service League by Virginia Woolf. It was also included in Death of a Moth and Other Essays in 1942. Throughout the speech, Virginia Woolf brings forward a problem that is still relevant today: gender inequality . Woolf’s main point in this essay was to bring awareness to the phantoms (illusions) and obstacles women face in their jobs. Woolf argues that women must overcome special obstacles to become successful in their careers. She describes two hazards she thinks all women who aspire to professional life must overcome: their tendency to sacrifice their own interests to those of others and their reluctance (hesitancy) to challenge c...

Summary and Analysis of THE HIDDEN LIFE OF GARBAGE by Heather Rogers

THE HIDDEN LIFE OF GARBAGE Heather Rogers Journalist Heather Rogers has written articles on the environmental effects of mass production and consumption for the New York Times Magazine, the Utne Reader, Architecture, and a variety of other publications. Her 2002 documentary film Gone Tomorrow: The Hidden Life of Garbage has been screened at festivals around the world and served as the basis for a book of the same title. Named an Editor’s Choice by the New York Times and the Guardian, the book, published in 2005, traces the history and politics of household garbage in the United States, drawing connections between modern industrial production, consumer culture, and our contemporary throwaway lifestyle. Americans produce the most waste of any people on Earth, says Rogers, but few of us ever think about where all that trash goes. Rogers endeavours to show the inner workings of the waste stream, from the garbage...

THIRD THOUGHTS - E.V. Lucas, England (1868-1938)

E.V. Lucas, England (1868-1938) The story ‘ Third Thoughts ’ by E.V. Lucas (1868-1938) is a great satire of the common human mentality. This story was told to Lucas by his friend who had a business especially buying at dearer (higher) prices and selling at cheap. However, he always used to bear the loss. He used to think that one day luck would favour him. As he thought, once he earned abnormal profit by selling Turner’s panting at 50 pounds which he had bought at only 10 shillings from a curio (Something unusual -- perhaps worthy of collecting) shop at Cathedral city . He was really happy and excited for the first time in his business so he wanted to share half of his profit with the dealer. But since he had no stamps to send the parcel, he went to the bed. When he woke up at 3.30 am, again he began to think that sharing half of the profit is not a good idea because no one had done this to him yet. Then he thought of giving ten pounds. Due to unexpectedly earning an abnormal ...

THE LADY WITH THE DOG (1899)

Anton Chekhov (1860-1904) Ø Tells the story of an affair o Wealthy Banker ( Dmitry Gurov ) o Young Wife ( Anna ) Ø Builds off of what is expected o Affair was thought to be a quick experience o These characters were surprised to find that not the case o Specially the Banker Ø After short affair they meet again o Rekindle their relationship o Develop a new chapter in their lives o Discover themselves Ø The writer presents the Theme and Ideas o Progression of Character: § Moving from stereotype to developed § Dmitri: Rich playboy with no depth becomes entwined with Anna. § Anna: Moves from The Lady with the Dog to someone with a name. · Relates to getting to know people as well as individual development. o Open Ending and the Ability t...

A PAINFUL CASE

James Joyce Dubliners is a collection of fifteen short stories by James Joyce, first published in 1914. The stories depict a naturalistic Irish middle class life in and around Dublin in the early years of the 20 th century. CHARACTERS: James Duffy Mrs Emily Sinico Captain Sinico (Ship Captain) Mary In A Painful Case by James Joyce we have the theme of loneliness, isolation, guilt, order and paralysis. Taken from his Dubliners collection the story is narrated in the third person by an unnamed narrator and very early on in the story the reader realises that Joyce, through the use of colour, is highlighting to the reader how lonely the main character, James Duffy ’s life is a middle-aged bachelor without family or friends, is a cashier in a private bank and lives a Spartan (simple) existence in a Dublin suburb. He dislikes physical and mental disorder, ignores beggars’ pleas for alms (charities), and does not attend church. Hi...

Subodh Bhattarai (English & Communication Notes)

Search This Blog