Adjectives, Comparatives and Superlatives in English

Adjectives in English

ADJECTIVES:

Pretty girl, big car, small house

Nunca es plural, siempre es singular: ej. red house, NO REDS HOUSES

Orden: opinion, size, age, shape, colour, origin, material, purpose

Ej: A beautiful small new squared red French leather handbag

Comparative of Superiority

COMPARATIVE OF SUPERIORITY

1. One-syllable adjectives

   We normally add -er.

   Adjectives ending in -e add -r.

   Adjectives ending in vowel + consonant: double the consonant and add -er.

   Ej: The turtle is slower than the rabbit.

2. Two-syllable adjectives

   We normally use more before the adjective.

   When the adjective ends in -y, we drop the y and add -ier.

   Ej: This man is happier than that man.

3. Three-syllable or more adjectives

   We use more before the adjective.

   Ej: The lion is more dangerous than the sheep.

Short adjective comparative

1. Short adjectives have only one syllable.

Short adjective + -er - than

• Long - longer
• Tall - taller

Double the last consonant if the preceding letter is a vowel:

• Big - bigger
• Thin - thinner

2. Adjectives ending in -y: change y to i, then add -er

• Ugly - uglier
• Lazy - lazier
• Happy - happier

3. Long adjectives have two or more syllables.

Long adjective comparative: more + adjective + than

• More beautiful than
• More hardworking than
• More intelligent than

Irregular / Special

• His English is better than hers.
• Her English is worse than his.
• She has less money than you.
• My house is far from school.

Irregular forms:

• Good -> better
• Bad -> worse
• Little -> less
• Far -> farther / further

Comparative of Inferiority

COMPARATIVE OF INFERIORITY

Form: less … than

We use the same form with short and long adjectives.

Ej: The chair is less comfortable than this armchair.

Comparative of Equality

COMPARATIVE OF EQUALITY

Form: as … as

We use the same form with short and long adjectives.

Ej: This elephant is as big as that elephant.

Superlatives

SUPERLATIVES

To compare three or more things: people, objects, animals.

1. One-syllable adjectives

• We normally add -est.
• Adjectives ending in -e add -st.
• Adjectives ending in vowel + consonant: double the consonant and add -est.

Ej: The turtle is the slowest animal.

2. Two-syllable adjectives

• We normally add most before the adjective.
• When the adjective ends in -y, we drop the y and add -iest.

Ej: The man is the happiest in the world.

3. Three-syllable or more adjectives

• We use the most before the adjective.

Ej: The lion is one of the most dangerous animals in the world.

Superlative adjectives: in / of

Ej: She is the youngest in the class.
She is the youngest of the children.

Irregular Adjectives

Irregular adjectives

Long adjectives: add most + adjective to form the superlative.