How to form comparative adjectives

Forming Comparative Adjectives

Adjectives can be of:

• one syllable (tall, young, old etc)
• two syllables (early, modern, stressed etc)
• or more syllables (intelligent, expensive, beautiful etc)

The English language tries to be efficient and practical

• – we add -er to the end of an adjective if it is possible (taller, younger);
•   if not
• – we add more before the adjective (more expensive, more beautiful)

 Changes made to ordinary adjectives to form comparative adjectives:

One-syllable adjectives

1- Adjectives of one syllable that finish with “e”: we add “r” to the end of the adjective

wise > wiser; strange > stranger; close > closer

2- Adjectives of one syllable that end with one vowel and one consonant (thin, big, red, fat): we double the last consonant and add –er to the end of the adjective.

• thin becomes thinner; big becomes  bigger and red becomes redder

3- Adjectives of one  syllable that finish with a consonant and “y” (dry, wry); sometimes we change the “y” for an “i” and then add –er – check a good dictionary.

• dry becomes drier; but wry can be wrier or wryer

4- All other Adjectives of one syllable

for example:

• – Adjectives that finish with two consonants: tall, young
• – Adjectives that finish with two vowels and one consonant: proud, loud, great
• – Adjectives that finish with one vowel and “w“: slow, new

we add -er to the end of the adjective

• tall becomes taller; young becomes younger

short  > shorter;   strong > stronger; fast > faster;   hard > harder;   old > older

• Proud becomes prouder; loud becomes louder; fair becomes fairer
  
• Slow becomes slower; new becomes newer; few becomes fewer

Two-syllable adjectives

1- two-syllable adjectives ending in “y” (cloudy, pretty, silly, guilty etc); we change the “y” for an “i” and then add –er

• cloudy > cloudier; pretty > prettier; silly > sillier; guilty > guiltier

2- Some other two-syllable adjectives, many with the stress on the first syllable (narrow, simple, clever, quiet); we add –er to the adjective

• narrow > narrower; simple > simpler; clever > cleverer; quiet > quieter; gentle > gentler; yellow > yellower
  

3- With many two-syllable adjectives, including ones that end with “e“,(handsome, polite, common) –er or more can be used.

• handsome > handsomer/more handsome; polite > politer/ more polite; common > commoner/ more common

4- Two-syllable adjectives ending in –ing, –ed, –ful and –less (willing, thrilling, pointed, muted, thoughtful, worthless) can only be used with more

• willing > more willing; thrilling > more thrilling;  pointed > more pointed; thoughtful > more thoughtful; worthless > more worthless
• *** check a good dictionary if you are not sure

Longer adjectives

1- Words like unlucky (the opposite of 2 syllable adjectives ending in –y) are an exception; we change the “y” for an “i” and then add –er

unlucky > unluckier; untidy > untidier; unhappy > unhappier

2- Compound adjectives with good or well have two possible comparative forms:

good-looking > better-looking or more good-looking

well-known > better-known or more well-known

3- Adjectives of three or more syllables (wonderful, valuable, intelligent) , we add more

wonderful > more wonderful; valuable > more valuable;  intelligent > more intelligent, incredible > more incredible

Irregular adjectives when comparing

• good > better                      John is better at maths than Trevor.
• bad > worse                         The weather is worse today than yesterday.
• ill > worse                             I don’t think ill of James, I think worse of his boss
• far > further/ farther    Berlin is further from London than Paris  * further or farther can be used in all comparisons with far, it is generally a pronunciation preference. I personally use further to avoid confusion with father
• old > older/ elder            older is used for people or things , elder is used for relatives (family members)
•                                                      My car is older than my wife’s. I have two younger brothers and one elder brother called Neil

Superlative adjectives and adverbs -Introduction

Check how to form Comparative adjectives