Comparison Adjectives Review
Adjectives can be used to show a comparison between two subjects. There are two main forms of adjectives when discussing comparisons: Comparative, which compares between two subjects; as well as Superlative, which is used when comparing three or more subjects. An example would be the word slow. The comparative form of slow would be slower, which states that one subject is slower than another. The superlative form of slow would be slowest, which states that one subject is slower than all of the two or more subjects.
Degrees of Adjective Comparison
Adjectives can be used to compare people, places, or things different in degree. If you have a one-syllable adjective, you use the suffix -er or -est, or the words in front of it “less” or “least”. Say we have the word “new”. When we want to make that comparative form of new, we add the suffix -er to make it “newer”. If we’re trying to compare it with three or more objects, then we would put -est as the suffix to make it “newest”.
That’s the superlative form. Say you have one car and it’s only a month old. You would say you have a “new” car. If you have a car that’s one month old and another car that’s two months old, you would say that the one month old car is the “newer” car. If you’re dealing with three cars, one is a month old, one is two months old, and the other one is three months old. You refer to the car that is a month old as the “newest” car.
This is in the positive sense, whichever one is newer. If we’re looking at this more in the negative sense, we could say the comparative form would be “less new” and the superlative form would be the “least new”. If you have two cars, again, you would refer to the one that’s two months old and the older cars as being “less new”, and you would refer to the oldest car if you have three or more cars as being the “least new”.
If you have a two-syllable adjective ending in y, you use the suffix -er or -est, or you used the words “less” or “least”. Say you have the word “hungry”. You’re going to drop the y and change it to I and add -er. Change the y to I and add -er, so you get “hungrier”. It’s similar with the superlative form. You change the y to I and add -est so you have “hungriest”. If you have one person you would describe them as “hungry”.
With two people, you would describe one person as being “hungrier” or describe the other person as being “less hungry”. If you have three or more, you would describe one person as being the “hungriest”, or you would describe someone as being the “least hungry”. If you have a word with two or more syllables, use more/most or less/least. Notice here that we’re no longer using suffixes. If something is thrilling and you’re comparing it with something else, you’d say that one is “more thrilling”.
Then, if you have three or more, you’d describe something as being the “most thrilling”. Then, in the same way as before, you would describe one is being “less thrilling” or the “least thrilling”. Say you have one amusement park ride somewhere. You would describe it as thrilling. If you’re dealing with two rides, you would describe one as being “more thrilling”, but if you have a whole amusement park full of rides, you would describe one as being the “most thrilling”.
Now, there are some words that we call irregular. They’re irregular and the way that we form their comparative and superlative. A great example of that is the word “bad”. The comparative form is “worse than”, which isn’t even another form of “bad”. The superlative form is the “worst”. That’s a look at unequal comparison adjectives.