Level: beginner
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.
New York is much bigger than Boston.
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.)
- Comparative adjectives 1
- Comparative adjectives 2
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.
- Superlative adjectives 1
- Superlative adjectives 2
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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 | silliest |
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.
His brother is handsome, but he is more handsome.
She is one of the politest people I have ever met.
She is the most polite person I have ever met.
The adjectives good, bad and far have irregular comparatives and superlatives:
| good | better | best |
| bad | worse | worst |
| far | farther/further | farthest/furthest |
- How to form comparative and superlative adjectives
Hi Nevi,
Many adjectives have the same form as the past participle but function in the same way as any other adjective. For example, 'well-travelled' has no passive meaning; it is used in the same way as any other adjective:
a happy woman
a nice woman
a well-travelled woman
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hi Kunthea,
Actually, both sentences make sense, but they have different meanings. The first one means that you have met her, and the second one means that you haven't met her. The first one seems the more likely situation.
You could use a negative verb with a meaning similar to sentence 1 if you say something like this:
I hope that helps :)
Jonathan
The LearnEnglish Team
Hi Kunthea,
The second one means you've never met her before (note the present perfect here, not present simple). Yes, that's right - it may be that somebody is telling you about a person that you haven't met. But, in this situation, I think it would be unusual to make the judgement that "She is one of the politest people", since you don't have the personal experience of meeting and talking to her. A more common thing to say might be "She sounds very polite", or "I've never met anyone that polite".
Jonathan
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello Nevı,
Quite a number of participles can be used as adjectives, but I'm afraid that isn't true of all participles. As far as I know, there is no simple way to know this, though of course you can always look them up in the dictionary.
All the best,
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello Nevi,
Languages grow organically as they are used, so their is no plan guiding their development. This means that their systems are not always consistent.
I do think that the adjective unplanned comes from the verb plan: the verb has a past participle (planned) which can be used as an adjective. Once it exists as an adjective it follows its own development, including adding a prefix which did not originate from the verb. It's quite a common pattern: please > pleased > unpleased; love > loved > unloved etc.
You're correct that we do not use wanting before a noun. There are other adjectives like this, such as galore (meaning very many): bargains galore, savings galore etc. Sometimes there is an etymological reason for this such as a word coming from another language where it is used in a certain way, and sometimes it is simily a reflection of the organic and unplanned ways in which languages evolve.
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello Nevı,
Yes, I'd say it's a reduced relative clause, the full form being something like 'experiences [that are] related to reopening schools'.
Good work!
All the best,
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello Nevi,
These are clauses but are not complete sentences. Without knowing the full context in which they are used we can't say if they have the same or different meanings.
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello Nevi,
Yes, that makes sense to me. It seems as if you know your grammar better than I do -- good work!
All the best,
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello mc2bav4,
Some 2-syllable words have preferred forms, so we say 'heavier' rather than 'more heavy', for example. However, there is often a choice. You can say 'commoner' or 'more common', just as both 'cleverer' and 'more clever' and both 'prettier' and 'more pretty' are correct.
I'm afraid there's no rule for this. It's just a case of recognising which forms are common and which are not.
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello again mc2bav4,
It's possible to do searches in online corpora to find the relative frequency of different words or phrases, but for most you need to register and sometimes subscribe (pay). I think the best approach is exactly what you are doing: expose yourself to as much authentic language as you can through reading, listening and watching, and you'll pick up natural usage as you go.
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hi Nevı,
Yes! That's right. You can use any of these words before the adjective. They all have the same meaning. But, in style, miles is informal.
Jonathan
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello Yokohama,
I wouldn't say 'the most easy way'; I would say 'the easiest way'. I've never seen anyone else use 'the most easy' and I'm afraid I can't explain why they do.
All the best,
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello mynameiscg,
The first sentence is correct. We don't use 'among' when we are talking about only two. You could use it with a larger group and a superlative adjective 'the tallest among them', however.
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello Azrostami,
The first one is correct; the second one is not.
All the best,
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team
Hi ahmad 920,
There are several ways the sentences could be changed, but as I don't know what your intended meaning is I can't suggest them. As the sentences are, there is only one change needed, which is to capitalise the word after the second full stop (you > You).
There should be a full stop at the end, of course.
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello Julia 19862008
Both forms are used very frequently and so you can use the one you prefer. In very specific formal situations (for example, writing a book or article), the publisher might prefer one form over the other. But the vast majority of the time, either one should be fine.
All the best,
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello Atlantics,
'any clearer' is the best form here. I'd also recommend changing 'can't' to 'couldn't': 'A cry that couldn't be any clearer'.
All the best,
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello Chékytan,
We don't use inversion in comparisons like this -- instead, you should use the normal word order: 'Children spend more time with teachers than [they do] with their parents.'
You can also leave out the words in brackets and still have a grammatically comparative statement.
All the best,
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello Yigitcan,
The sentence is correct because the main verb in the sentence is 'is', not 'you have seen'. It might help to simplify the sentence to 'What is the funniest advert?' In this case, it's clear that 'is' is the main verb.
'you have seen recently' is part of the relative clause '(that) you have seen recently', which gives us more information about the advert.
Does that make sense?
All the best,
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello Via,
The rule on this page is a general one and 'newer' and 'cleaner' are exceptions to it. The best thing to do is check a dictionary or reference book when you want to be sure of the spelling. I'm sorry for any confusion.
All the best,
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello Sherol,
Both of these words can be used in different ways. If you look up 'lower', for example, you'll see that as a verb, it has at least three meanings, and it can also be an adjective. 'below' is a preposition and an adjective.
I'd recommend you have a look at the following two explanations, which I think will clarify this for you. But if you have a specific question after reading them, please don't hesitate to ask us again:
Best wishes,
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello Santiago0227,
Yes, there is a difference. When you say 'I have ever seen', you are speaking about your whole life, from the time you were born (in the past) up until the present moment (the present). In Spanish, this would be something like 'que jamás he visto'.
'I had ever seen' refers to a point of time in the past. By itself, this sentence doesn't specify when that past time is, but I suppose it would be clear in text. In Spanish, this would be 'que había visto jamás' (hasta aquel momento aquí no especificado).
If you say 'He was', you're only speaking about the past, whereas 'He is' also refers to the present. If it were me, I'd probably say 'who met' instead of 'to meet' or 'to have met', but perhaps in some specific situation 'to meet' would be better. It's difficult to say without knowing more about the situation.
All the best,
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team
Hi LubNko525,
In your first example, there is a difference. If you use the present tense (is) then we know that she is still the youngest child to have done this. If you use the past tense (was) then we do not know this; it is possible that someone younger than her sailed around the world later.
In your second example, there is no such ambiguity as being first is not something that can change; whoever was the first to do something remains the first for ever. Thus in this example there is no difference.
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team