Comparative and Superlative Adjectives: Rules and Examples

Comparatives

One way to describe nouns (people, objects, animals, etc.) is by comparing them to something else. When comparing two things, you’re likely to use adjectives like smaller, bigger, taller, more interesting, and less expensive. Notice the ‑er ending, and the words more and less. A mistake that both native speakers and non-native speakers make is using incorrectly formed comparative adjectives. See the sentences below for an illustration of this common error

Incorrect              His cat is more large than my dog.

Correct                   His cat is larger than my dog.

So what makes the first example wrong and the second right? There are a few rules that explain this:

•  For adjectives that are just one syllable, add -er to the end (this explains the above example).
• For two-syllable adjectives not ending in -y and for all three-or-more-syllable adjectives, use the form “more + adjective.”
• For two-syllable adjectives ending in -y, change the -y to -i and add -er.

These simple rules make it easy to tell when you should add -er or -ier and when you should use “more + adjective.”

Here are a few more examples:

Correct                 This house is more exciting than ever

Incorrect                  This house is excitinger than ever.

Correct                    Mike is funnier than Isaac.

Incorrect                  Mike is more funny than Isaac.

Notice the spelling change for adjectives ending in ‑y: the comparative ends in ‑ier.

Incorrect              This book is boringer than the last one.

Correct                    This book is more boring than the last one.

Incorrect                  Advertising pressures women to be more thin .

Correct                     Advertising pressures women to be thinner .

Superlatives

When comparing more than two things, you’ll likely use words and phrases like smallest, biggest, tallest, most interesting, and least interesting. Notice the ‑est ending and the words most and least. Make sure you use the proper ending or superlative adjective when forming these superlatives. The examples below illustrate the correct form:

Incorrect            Martha is the elder of the four sisters.

If there were only two sisters, we could use the comparative elder here. Because there are four sisters, we need a superlative.

Correct              Martha is the eldest of the four sisters.

Here are a couple of other examples:

Correct         I think his last book is his least interesting ; his third book was the most interesting .

Correct           That must be the weirdest play ever written.

Remember that adjectives ending in ‑y change their spelling when ‑est is added. To form these superlatives, change the y to an i before adding the -est ending, as illustrated below:

Incorrect              That is the sleepyest puppy of the litter.

Correct                     That is the sleepiest puppy of the litter.