DEGREES OF COMPARISON AND INTENSIFICATION
COMPARATIVE AND SUPERLATIVE DEGREES
When we want to express the notion that a person, thing or situation has more or less of a quality, we can mark a gradable adjective for comparative (1) or superlative (2) degree.
This is done grammatically in one of two ways: by inflection, adding -er and -est to the base form, or analytically by the adverbs more and most:
Base form Comparative Superlative
big bigger biggest (inflectional)
comfortable more comfortable most comfortable (analytic)
Inflected forms are used with:
• Short adjectives of one syllable, and disyllabic adjectives ending in –y (hot–hotter hottest; old–older–oldest; easy–easier–easiest; ugly–uglier–ugliest). Exceptions are right, wrong and real.
The ugliest concrete building imaginable.
• Disyllabic adjectives in -ow (narrow, shallow, hollow, mellow) can be inflected, as can other short adjectives ending in weak syllables such as -le (simple, able, noble).
Analytic forms are used with:
• adjectives of more than two syllables (e.g. encouraging); and
• adjectives which are already inflected (e.g. lovable, famous, greenish, pleased).
However, ease of pronunciation and smoothness of sound are important factors, and speakers sometimes improvise if the result sounds acceptable. Lewis Carroll, the creator of Alice in Wonderland, is said to have introduced ‘curiouser and curiouser’, which is still used, though jocularly, by some speakers.
Adjectives in -y which commonly take -er and -est include: happy, lazy, cosy, crazy, dirty, empty, lucky, nasty, pretty, silly, tidy, tricky. The letter ‘y’ is replaced by ‘i’ before an inflection: happier, luckiest.
The following adjectives have suppletive forms for grades 1 and 2:
good, better, best far, farther, farthest
bad, worse, worst far, further, furthest
The word further can also be used with the sense of ‘other’, ‘later’, ‘additional’:
The theatre is closed until further notice.
Asking and answering questions about degree
How old is he? He’ll be ten next May. He’s nine years eight months old now.
How old is this church? It must be at least four hundred years old.
Who is taller, you or your sister? I am taller, but James, our brother, is the tallest.
The adjectives elder, eldest (alternative to older, oldest) refer only to persons.
my elder son; our eldest daughter; an elder brother or sister
John is the elder of the two.
I was the second eldest. [FY1]
The adjective elderly is not comparative, but refers euphemistically to a person approaching old age. The comparative degree of certain other adjectives has the value of a classifier:
junior rank (= low) inferior quality (= bad) major error (= great)
senior rank (= high) superior quality (= good) minor error (= small)
your upper/lower jaw my inner life the outer walls (of the city)
There are no inflections of lower and lowest degree corresponding to -er and -est. For this meaning less and least are used as modifiers. The following table summarizes the grading options in English:
Adjectives and adverbs whose meanings are inherently superlative such as unique and perfect are prescriptively banned from comparative and superlative marking. They can be intensified by truly, absolutely, utterly, however, to express the highest degree of a quality:
The feeling is truly unique. It was a truly unique experience.
