Modul 18

Degrees of Comparison

When we compare two things or people we look at what makes them different from each other.
For example:

Tall / Short

The man on the left is taller than the man on the right.
The man on the right is shorter than the man on the left.

Fast / Slow

A car is faster than a bicycle.
A bicycle is slower than a car.

Comparative adjectives are used to show what quality one thing has more or less than the other. They normally come before any other adjectives.
For example:

Big / Small

The red bag is bigger than the blue bag.
The blue bag is smaller than the red bag.

Forming the comparative

Form	Rule	For example
Words of one syllable ending in 'e'.	Add -r to the end of the word.	wide - wider
Words of one syllable, with one vowel and one consonant at the end.	Double the consonant and add -er to the end of the word.	big - bigger
Words of one syllable, with more than one vowel or more than one consonant at the end.	Add - er to the end of the word.	high - higher
Words of two syllables, ending in 'y'.	Change 'y' to 'i', and add -er to the end of the word.	happy - happier
Words of two syllables or more, not ending in 'y'.	Place 'more' before the adjective.	beautiful - more beautiful

The following adjectives are exceptions to this rule:

• 'good' becomes 'better'
• 'bad' becomes 'worse'
• 'far' becomes 'farther' or 'further'

!Note - When comparing two things like this we put than between the adjective and the thing being compared.

For example:-

• "Mount Everest is higher than Mount Snowdon."
• "Arguably, Rome is more beautiful than Paris.

Read the following sentences:

1. John is tall.
2. Peter is taller than John.
3. Harry is the tallest of the three.

The comparative degree of an adjective shows a higher degree of the quality than that is present in the positive degree. It is used when two things or two sets of things are compared.

• Peter is smarter than John.
• Which of the two sisters is the prettier?
• Apples are dearer than oranges.

The superlative degree of an adjective denotes the highest degree of the quality. It is used when more than two things or sets of things are compared.

• Peter is the smartest boy in the class.
• Iron is the most useful of all metals.
• Alice is the prettiest girl in the neighborhood.

dverb clauses of degree or comparison answer the question how much, how little or how many. The chief conjunctions used to introduce adverb clauses of degree are as, as…as, so…as and than.

• She is older than her husband.
• She is as intelligent as she is beautiful.
• You are later than I expected.
• She is as pretty as a doll.
• She is not so intelligent as her sister.

The correlative the…the may also be considered as a conjunction introducing adverb clauses of degree.

• The older you grow the wiser you become.
• The more he earns the more he spends