Comparatives and Superlatives

In this post we shall discuss about Comparatives and Superlatives. First lets see what are these comparatives and superlatives and how to use them.

Comparatives : 

We use comparatives to compare two things or two people. (e.g He is shorter than his wife.).

Superlatives : 

Superlatives are used to compare more than two things or more than two
people. (e.g . Mumbai is the biggest city in India). 

Note : To form comparatives and superlatives you need to know the
number of syllables in the adjective.Syllables are
like "sound beats".

Example :

·       
"find"
contains one syllable,

·       
but "finding"
contains two — find and ing.

Hope you have got the basic idea on Comparatives, Superlatives and
Sillables. Now lets have a look at some rules to form Comparatives and
superlatives.

1. One syllable adjective ending in a silent 'e' — nice

·       
Comparative — add 'r' — nicer

·       
Superlative — add 'st' — nicest

2. One syllable adjective ending in one vowel and one consonnant — big

·       
Comparative — the
consonant is doubled and 'er' is added —bigger

·       
Superlative — the
consonant is doubled and 'est' is added—biggest

3. One syllable adjective ending in more than one consonant or
more than a vowel —high, cheap

·       
Comparative — 'er' is
added — higher, cheaper

·       
Superlative — 'est is
added — highest, cheapest

4. A two syllable adjective ending in 'y' — happy

·       
Comparative — 'y'
becomes 'i' and 'er' is added — happier

·       
Superlative — 'y'
becomes 'i' and 'est' is added — happiest

5. Tow syllable or more adjectives without 'y' at the end — exciting

·       
Comparative — more
+ the adjective + than — more exciting than

·       
Superlative — more
+ the adjective + than — the most exciting 

Examples:

·       
The Nile River is longer and more
famous than the Thames.

·       
Egypt is much hotter
than Sweden.

·       
Everest is the
highest mountain in the world.

·       
This is one of the
most exciting films I have ever seen.

Here is a table of Irregular comparatives and
superlatives

Adjectives	Comparatives	Superlatives
bad	worse	worst
far(distance)	farther	farthest
far(extent)	further	furthest
good	better	best
little	less	least
many	more	most
much	more	most

How to use comparatives and superlatives ?

Comparatives	Superlatives
Comparatives are used to compare two things or two people: Alan is taller than John.	Superlatives are used to compare more than two things or two people. Superlative sentences usually use 'the': Alan is the most intelligent.

Similarities

To express similarities use the following structure:

... as + adjective + as ...

Examples:

• Raghav is as intelligent as Prabhas.
• Aamir is as popular as Sharukh.