Degree of Comparison

In English grammar the degree of comparison of an adjective or adverb that describes the relational value of one thing with something in another clause of a sentence.

An Adjective is a word which qualifies (shows how big, small, great, many, few, etc.) a noun or a pronoun is in a sentence.

An adjective can be attributive (comes before a noun) or predicative (comes in the predicate part):

e.g.  He is a tall man. (‘tall’ –  adjective – attributive)

This man is tall.  (‘tall’ –  adjective – predicative)

An adjective may simply describe a quality, (the positive); it may compare the quality with that of another of its kind (comparative degree); and it may compare the quality with many or all others (superlative degree).  In other languages it may describe a very large degree of a particular quality (in Semitic linguistics, called an elative).

An Adverb is a word which adds to the meaning of the main verb (how it is done, when it is done, etc.) of a sentence or expression.

It normally ends with ‘ly’, but there are some adverbs that are without ‘ly’:

e.g.  She ate her lunch quickly.   He speaks clearly.  They type fast.

The degree of comparison may be expressed morphologically, or syntactically. In English, for example, most monosyllabic and some disyllabic adjectives have morphological degrees of comparison: green (positive), greener (comparative), greenest (superlative); pretty, prettier, prettiest; while most polysyllabic adjectives use syntax: complex, more complex, most complex.

 

Kinds of comparison:

 

1. POSITIVE DEGREE: Tom is a tall boy.

In this sentence the word ‘tall’ is an adjective telling us how Tom is.  There is no other person or thing in this sentence used to compare Tom with, but it is the general way of saying about persons, animals and things that they have some quality (here ‘tallness’) above average in general sense. The adjective word ‘tall’ is said to be  in the “positive form”.

This comparison is called “positive degree” comparison.

There are two more comparisons with the ‘positive form’ of the adjective words. They are:

(i)  Degree of Equality: This comparison is used to compare two persons, animals or things to tell us that they are equal – having the same quality.

There are  two cats with the same height and weight, and look the same except for the colour.

Therefore we say:

The brown cat is as beautiful as the grey cat.  (= Both the cats are the same.)

The word “beautiful” is an adjective in the ‘positive form’, and with the conjunction as…as  it expresses the ‘degree of equality’.

(ii)  Degree of Inequality: This comparison is used to compare two persons, animals or things to tell us that they are not equal – not having the same quality.

The brown cat is not so beautiful as the black & white cat.         (= They are not the same.)

The word “beautiful” is an adjective in the ‘positive form’, and with the conjunction so…as (and the negative ‘not’) it expresses the ‘degree of inequality’

 

2. COMPARATIVE DEGREE:   Tom is taller than his sister.

In the second sentence the word ‘taller’ is an adjective used to compare the ‘tallness’ of these two persons – Tom and his sister – and to tell us that Tom has more of the quality of ‘tallness’.

Therefore, an adjective word which shows the difference of quality between two groups of persons, animals or things is said to be in the ‘comparative form’. persons, animals or things, or

This comparison is called “Comparative Degree”.

There are two more degrees of comparison with the ‘comparative form’ of an adjective. They are:

(i)  Parallel Degree: This comparison is used to show that the qualities of two items (adjectives or adverbs) talked about in the given sentence go parallel, i.e. if one quality (adjective or adverb) increases, the other quality (adjective or adverb) increases, and if one quality decreases, the other quality also decreases.

Ex: The bigger the box, the heavier it is.

(ii)  Progressive Degree: This comparison is used to show that the quality of a thing (adjective or adverb) talked about in the given sentence increases as the time passes, for example:

MON      TUE         WED       THU        FRI          SAT         SUN

25°          → 27°    → 30°      → 33°     → 35°       → 38°      → 40°

It’s getting hotter and hotter day by day.  [as the time passes the temperature increases] OR The days are getting hotter and hotter.

 

3. SUPERLATIVE DEGREE: Tom is the tallest students in the class

In this sentence the word (the) ‘tallest’ is an adjective used to compare the “tallness” of the students

This comparison is used to compare one person, animal or thing with more than two persons, animals or things (the rest of the group of more than two), and to say that the particular one has the highest degree of that particular quality. The adjective ‘large’ is said to be in the ‘superlative form’.

The next point to be considered is the forms of the adjectives and adverbs.

There are three forms – positive form, comparative form and superlative form – and seven degrees of comparison. That means we make seven degrees of comparison using the three forms of almost every adjective or adverb word.  Therefore, it is important for us to discuss the forms before going any further into this topic.

Most adjective or adverb words in their positive form take ‘er’  to change to comparative and ‘est’ to change to superlative form.  However, the words ending in ‘e’ take only ‘r’ to change to comparative form and only ‘st’ to change to superlative form.  And there are other differences with words having different spelling.

 

The meaning of an adjective or adverb in Comparative and Superlative form does not change; it is only the form that is changed but not the meaning.

Therefore, depending on the spelling, the adjective or adverb words are separated into groups so that we can memorize the spellings of the words in their different forms easily.

a)  The words which end in ‘e’ belong to this group and take only ‘r’ in comparative form and ‘st’ in superlative form:

brave  →  braver      → the bravest

large  →  larger         → the largest

wise    →  wiser          → the wisest

nice     → nicer           → the nicest

 

b) The words which end in any letter other than ‘e’ and/or ‘y’ belong to this group and take ‘er’ in comparative form and ‘est’ in superlative from:

sweet — sweeter — the sweetest

tall       → taller            → the tallest

young → younger      → the youngest

thick    → thicker         → the thickest

smart   → smarter       → the smartest

short    → shorter        → the shortest

c) The words which end in ‘y’ preceded by a consonant belong to this group; they lose the last letter ‘y’ and take ‘ier’ in the comparative form and ‘iest’ in superlative form:

happy → happier       → the happiest

easy     → easier          → the easiest

heavy   → heavier       → the heaviest

dry       →drier             → the driest

wry      → wrier           → the wriest

d) The words which end in ‘y’ preceded by a vowel, however, do not change their spelling but take ‘r/er’ in comparative form and ‘st/est’ in superlative form:

gay      → gayer          → the gayest

coy      →coyer           → the coyest

grey     →greyer          → the greyest

e) the words which end in a ‘consonant’ having a ‘vowel’ before that consonant belong to this group, and have their last consonant letter doubled before taking ‘er’ in comparative form and ‘est’ in superlative form:

red      →à redder         → the reddest

thin      → thinner       → the thinnest

hot       → hotter          → the hottest

big       →bigger          → the biggest

f) The words which have ‘two or more vowel sounds/ syllables’ in them belong to this group, and take the word “more” before them in comparative form and the word “ (the) most” in superlative form:

 

beautiful        → more beautiful       → the most beautiful

difficult           → more difficult        → the most difficult

handsome        → more handsome     → the most handsome

expensive        → more expensive      → the most expensive

diligent            → more diligent         → the most diligent

g) The words which have ‘two or more vowel sounds/ syllables’ in them belong to this group, and end in “some, ow, le, er”, take ‘er’ in comparative form and ‘est’ in superlative from:

 

wholesome      → wholesomer            → wholesomerst

narrow             → narrower                 → narrowest

noble               → nobler                     → noblest

clever               → cleverer                   → cleverest

h) the words in this group do not take any suffix or any other word before them, but change their spelling and pronunciation entirely to form new words with the same meaning, of course (irregular)

good/well        →better                      →à the  best

bad/evil/ill       → worse                     →à the  worst

little                 → less/lesser*             →  the  least

much /many     → more                       → the most

late                  → later/latter*             → the latest/last*

old                   → older/elder*            → the oldest/eldest*

far                    → farther                    → the  farthest

fore                  → former                    →the  foremost/first*

fore                  → further                    → the  furthest

in                     → inner                       →the  inmost/inner most

up                    → upper                      →  the  upmost/uppermost

out                   → outer/utter               → the utmost/utter most