GRADES OF ADJETIVES

As we have seen, adjectives describe qualities of nouns. Some of these qualities may vary in degree or intensity. As in Spanish, when we want to make comparisons we contrast qualities or attributes by means of adjectives in their various degrees.

Grades of Adjectives

Adjectives that can vary in degree or intensity have comparative and superlative forms. In the next section, there are the rules on how to form these comparative and superlative forms.

The positive degree

The positive degree of adjectives, which we have seen above, is the quality in the simplest degree.

 fast (fast), hard (hard), smart (ready), pretty (nice),

 clean (clean), large (large), small (small), old (old),

 easy (easy) ...

Examples:

 Juan runs fast. (Juan runs fast.)

 Angela's room is clean. (Angela's room is clean.)

 I am tall. (I am tall.)

 New York is big. (New York is big.)

The comparative degree

When making comparisons, we can highlight the superiority, inferiority or equality of quality from one to another. The structure of each of these degrees of comparison is different.

1. Comparative superiority. In superiority comparisons, the adjective, which is in the comparative form (see below), is followed by "than".

Examples:

 Juan runs faster than Mark. (Juan runs faster than Mark.)

 Angela's room is cleaner than Sue's (Angela's room is cleaner than Sue's.)

 I am taller than Beth. (I'm taller than Beth.)

 New York is bigger than Los Angeles. (New York is bigger than Los Angeles.)

2. Comparatives of inferiority. To form this type of comparison we can use the conjunctions "not as ... as" or "less ... than". In both cases, the adjective is in the positive degree.

 Mark is not as fast as Juan (Mark does not run as fast as Juan.)

 Sue's room is less clean than Angela's (Sue's room is not as clean as Angela's.)

 Beth is not as tall as me. (Beth is not as tall as me.)

 Los Angeles is not as big as New York. (Los Angeles is not as big as New York.)

3. Comparative equality. With the adjective in the positive degree, we use the conjunction "as ... as" to form equality comparisons.

Note: We can modify a comparison with a quantifier (much, a lot, a little, slightly ...).

Examples:

 Juan is a lot faster than Mark. (Juan runs much faster than Mark.)

 I'm a little taller than Beth. (I'm a little taller than Beth.)

The superlative degree

The superlative degree denotes quality in the highest degree and as in Spanish, "the" is used in front of the adjective in the superlative form (see below).

Examples:

 Juan is the fastest. (Juan is the fastest.)

 Angela's room is the cleanest. (Angela's room is the cleanest.)

 I am the tallest. (I'm the tallest one.)

 New York is the biggest city in the United States. (New York is the largest city in the United States.)

Note: If the adjective is possessive, "the" is not used. Also "the" is not used if we compare something with itself.

Examples:

 His smartest student is Lisa. (Your smartest student is Lisa.)

 New York is coldest in January. (New York is colder in January.)

Form (Form)

There are some rules to form the comparative and superlative.

1. For one-syllable adjectives:

Superlative Comparative

Adds: "-er"

  faster adds: "-est"

  fastest

2. For one-syllable adjectives ending in "e":

Superlative Comparative

Adds: "-r"

  nicer adds: "-st"

  nicest

3. For one-syllable adjectives that end in consonant + vowel + consonant:

Superlative Comparative

add: consonant + "-er"

  hotter adds: consonant + "-est"

  hottest

4. For two-syllabic adjectives that end in "and":

Superlative Comparative

replace "and" with: "-ier"

  funnier replaces "y" with: "-iest"

  funniest

5. For adjectives of two or more syllables:

Superlative Comparative

Add: "more" / "less"

  more beautiful

  less beautiful adds: "the most" / "the least"

  the most beautiful

  the least beautiful

6. Irregular adjectives:

Adjective Comparative Superlative

  good better best

  bad worse worst

  far further furthest

Note: Some qualities can not vary in intensity or degree because they are extreme, absolute or classification adjectives. These qualities have no comparative or superlative form.

Examples:

Extremes

 freezing (ice cream)

 excellent (excellent)

Absolute

 dead (dead)

 unique (unique)

Classification

 married (married

 domestic (domestic)

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