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Degrees of Comparison
Degrees of Comparison are used when we compare one person or one
thing with another.
There are three Degrees of Comparison in English.
They are:
1. Positive degree.
2. Comparative degree.
3. Superlative degree.
Let us see all of them one by one.
1.Positive degree.
When we speak about only one person or thing, We use the Positive
degree.
Examples:
• This house is big.
In this sentence only one noun “The house” is talked about.
• He is a tall student.
• This flower is beautiful.
• He is an intelligent boy.
Each sentence mentioned above talks about only one noun.
The second one in the Degrees of Comparison is...
2.Comparative degree.
When we compare two persons or two things with each other,
We use both the Positive degree and Comparative degree.
Examples:
a. This house is bigger than that one. (Comparative degree)
This house is not as big as that one. (Positive degree)
The term “bigger” is comparative version of the term “big”.
Both these sentences convey the same meaning.
b. This flower is more beautiful than that. (Comparative)
This flower is not as beautiful as that. (Positive)
The term “more beautiful” is comparative version of the term “beautiful”.
Both these sentences convey the same meaning.
c. He is more intelligent than this boy. (Comparative)
He is not as intelligent as this boy. (Positive)
The term “more intelligent” is comparative version of the term “intelligent”.
Both these sentences convey the same meaning.
d. He is taller than Mr. Hulas. (Comparative)
He is not as tall as Mr. Hulas. (Positive)
The term “taller” is comparative version of the term “tall”.
Both these sentences convey the same meaning.
The third one in the Degrees of Comparison is...
3.Superlative degree:
When we compare more than two persons or things with one another,
We use all the three Positive, Comparative and Superlative degrees.
Examples:
a. This is the biggest house in this street. (Superlative)
This house is bigger than any other house in this street. (Comparative)
No other house in this street is as big as this one. (Positive)
The term “biggest” is the superlative version of the term “big”.
All the three sentences mean the same meaning.
b. This flower is the most beautiful one in this garden. (Superlative)
This flower is more beautiful than any other flower in this garden.
(Comparative)
No other flower in this garden is as beautiful as this one. (Comparative)
The term “most beautiful” is the superlative version of the term “beautiful”.
All the three sentences mean the same meaning.
c. He is the most intelligent in this class. (Superlative)
He is more intelligent than other boys in the class. (Comparative)
No other boy is as intelligent as this boy. (Positive)
The term “most intelligent” is superlative version of the term “intelligent”.
Both these sentences convey the same meaning.
d. He is the tallest student in this class. (Superlative)
He is taller than other students in this class. (Comparative)
No other student is as tall as this student. (Positive)
The term “tallest” is superlative version of the term “tall”.
Both these sentences convey the same meaning.
*Degrees of Comparison are applicable only to Adjectives and
Adverbs*
*Nouns and verbs do not have degrees of comparisons*
He is the tallest student in the class.
The term “tallest” is an adjective.
Among the members of the group, Mr. Clinton speaks most effectively.
The term “effectively” is an adverb.
All the terms used in the above-examples are either adjectives or adverbs.
We have seen all the three Degrees of Comparison.
Let us see their models.
Model -1: “The best”:
Examples:
i. This is the best hotel in this area.
No other hotel is as better as this on in this area.
No other hotel is as good as this one in this area.
ii. Unemployment is the most serious problem facing our country.
Unemployment is more serious than any other problem facing our country.
No other problem facing our country is as serious as unemployment.
Model-2: “One of the best”:
Examples:
i. Calcutta is one of the largest cities in India.
Calcutta is large than most other cities in India.
Very few cities in India are as large as Calcutta.
ii. Satin Tendulkar is one of the best batsmen in the world.
Satin Tendulkar is better than most other batsmen in the world.
No other batman in the world is as good as Satin Tendulkar.
Model-3: “Not the best”:
Examples:
i. This is not the best solution to the problem.
ii. This is not better than few other solutions to this problem.
iii. Other solutions to this problem are not as good as this one.
ii. New York is not the largest city in America.
New York is not bigger than many other cities in America.
Few other cities in America are at least as large as New York.
Few adjectives and adverbs get their Comparative forms by simply getting
“more” before them.
And their superlative terms, by getting “most” before them.
Examples:
Beautiful..........more beautiful..........most beautiful
Effective……….more effective………most effective
Effectively………more effectively……….most effectively
Enjoyable………….more enjoyable……….most enjoyable
Useful……………….more useful………..most useful
Different………..more different…………most different
Honest………..more honest…………..most honest
Qualified…………more qualified…………most qualified
Few adjectives and adverbs get their Comparative forms by simply getting
“er” after them and their superlative terms, by getting “est” after them.
Examples:
Hard……………..harder……………..hardest
Big……………….bigger…………….biggest
Tall……………..taller……………tallest
Long………………longer………………longest
Short……………..shorter……………….shortest
Costly…………………costlier……………costliest
Simple………………….simpler………….simplest
Positive Comparative
Good
Better
Superlative
Best
Beautiful More Beautiful Most Beautiful
Big
Bigger
Biggest
Tall
Taller
Tallest
Sincere
More Sincere
Most Sincere
Small
Smaller
Smallest
The Degrees of Comparison in English grammar are made with the Adjective and Adverb words to show
how big or small, high or low, more or less, many or few, etc., of the qualities, numbers and positions of
the nouns (persons, things and places) in comparison to the others mentioned in the other part of a
sentence or expression.
An Adjective is a word which qualifies (shows how big, small, great, many, few, etc.) a noun or a
pronoun is in a sentence.
An adjective can be attributive (comes before a noun) or predicative (comes in the predicate part):
e.g. He is a tall man. (‘tall’ – adjective – attributive)
This man is tall. (‘tall’ – adjective – predicative)
An Adverb is a word which adds to the meaning of the main verb (how it is done, when it is done, etc.)
of a sentence or expression.
It normally ends with ‘ly’, but there are some adverbs that are without ‘ly’:
e.g. She ate her lunch quickly. He speaks clearly. They type fast.
Kinds of comparison:
1. POSITIVE DEGREE: Tom is tall a boy.
In this sentence the word ‘tall’ is an adjective telling us how Tom is. There is no other person or thing in
this sentence used to compare Tom with, but it is the general way of saying about persons, animals and
things that they have some quality (here ‘tallness’) above average in general sense. The adjective word
‘tall’ is said to be in the “positive form”.
This comparison is called “positive degree” comparison.
There are two more comparisons with the ‘positive form’ of the adjective words. They are:
(i) Degree of Equality: This comparison is used to compare two persons, animals or things to tell us that
they are equal – having the same quality.
There are two cats with the same height and weight, and look the same except for the color.
Therefore we say:
The brown cat is as beautiful as the grey cat. (= Both the cats are the same.)
The word “beautiful” is an adjective in the ‘positive form’, and with the conjunction as…as it expresses
the ‘degree of equality’.
(ii) Degree of Inequality: This comparison is used to compare two persons, animals or things to tell us
that they are not equal – not having the same quality.
The brown cat is not so beautiful as the black & white cat.
(= They are not the same.)
The word “beautiful” is an adjective in the ‘positive form’, and with the conjunction so…as (and the
negative ‘not’) it expresses the ‘degree of inequality’
2. COMPARATIVE DEGREE:
Tom is a tall boy.
Tom is taller than his sister.
In the second sentence the word ‘taller’ is an adjective used to compare the ‘tallness’ of these two
persons – Tom and his sister – and to tell us that Tom has more of the quality of ‘tallness’.
Therefore, an adjective word which shows the difference of quality between twotwo groups of persons,
animals or things is said to be in the ‘comparative form’. persons, animals or things, or
This comparison is called “Comparative Degree”.
There are two more degrees of comparison with the ‘comparative form’ of an adjective. They are:
(i) Parallel Degree: This comparison is used to show that the qualities of two items (adjectives or
adverbs) talked about in the given sentence go parallel, i.e. if one quality (adjective or adverb) increases,
the other quality (adjective or adverb) increases, and if one quality decreases, the other quality also
decreases.
The bigger the box, the heavier it is.
(ii) Progressive Degree: This comparison is used to show that the quality of a thing (adjective or adverb)
talked about in the given sentence increases as the time passes, for example:
MON
TUE
WED
THU
FRI
SAT
SUN
25° → 27° → 30° → 33°→ 35° → 38° → 40°
It’s getting hotter and hotter day by day. [as the time passes the temperature increases] OR The days
are getting hotter and hotter.
3. SUPERLATIVE DEGREE:
A musk ox is a large animal.
An elephant is larger than a musk ox.
The blue whale is the largest of all animals.
The blue whale is the largest of all animals in the world.
In this sentence the word (the) ‘largest’ is an adjective used to compare the “largeness” of the blue
whale and to tell us that the blue whale has the most quality of ‘largeness’.
This comparison is used to compare one person, animal or thing with more than two persons, animals or
things (the rest of the group of more than two), and to say that the particular one has the highest
degree of that
particular quality (here the comparison is between the blue whale and the rest of the
animals, more than two). The adjective ‘large’ is said to be in the ‘superlative form’.
This comparison is called “Superlative Degree”.
For power presentation slides on comparisons, click here on degrees of comparison. For continuity,
please keep clicking after each feature in each slide.
The next point to be considered is the forms of the adjectives and adverbs.
There are three forms – positive form, comparative form and superlative form – and seven degrees of
comparison. That means we make seven degrees of comparison using the three forms of almost every
adjective or adverb word. Therefore, it is important for us to discuss the forms before going any further
into this topic.
Most adjective or adverb words in their positive form take ‘er’ to change to comparative and ‘est’ to
change to superlative form. However, the words ending in ‘e’ take only ‘r’ to change to comparative
form and only ‘st’ to change to superlative form. And there are other differences with words having
different spelling.
The meaning of an adjective or adverb in Comparative and Superlative form does not change; it is only
the form that is changed but not the meaning.
Therefore, depending on the spelling, the adjective or adverb words are separated into groups so that
we can memorize the spellings of the words in their different forms easily.
Positive comparative superlative
a) the words which end in ‘e’ belong to his group and take only ‘r’ in comparative form and ‘st’ in
superlative form:
brave — braver — the bravest
large — larger — the largest
wise — wiser — the wisest
b) the words which end in any letter other than ‘e’ and/or ‘y’ belong to this group and take ‘er’ in
comparative form and ‘est’ in superlative from:
sweet — sweeter — the sweetest
tall — taller — the tallest
young — younger — the youngest
c) the words which end in ‘y’ preceded by a consonant belong to this group; they lose the last letter ‘y’
and take ‘ier’ in the comparative form and ‘iest’ in superlative form:
happy — happier — the happiest
easy — easier — the easiest
heavy — heavier — the heaviest
The words which end in ‘y’ preceded by a vowel, however, do not change their spelling but take ‘r/er’ in
comparative form and ‘st/est’ in superlative form: e.g. gay – gayer – gayest (this word is now considered
old-fashioned in the sense of ‘happy; excited’, and in the present day English it is used for male
homosexual).
d) the words which end in a ‘consonant’ having a ‘vowel’ before that consonant belong to this group,
and have their last consonant letter doubled before taking ‘er’ in comparative form and ‘est’ in
superlative form:
red — redder — the reddest
thin — thinner — the thinnest
hot – hotter — the hottest
e) the words which have ‘two or more vowel sounds’ in them belong to this group, and take the word
“more” before them in comparative form and the word “ (the) most” in superlative form:
beautiful
more beautiful
the most beautiful
difficult
more difficult
the most difficult
splendid
more splendid
the most splendid
f) the words in this group do not take any suffix or any other word before them, but change their
spelling and pronunciation entirely to form new words with the same meaning, of course:
good/well – better — the best
bad/evil/ill — worse — the worst
little — less/lesser* — the least
much — more — the most
many — more — the most
late — later/latter* — the latest/last*
old — older/elder* – the oldest/eldest*
far — farther — the farthest
fore — former — the foremost/first*
fore – further — the furthest
in — inner — the inmost/inner most
up — upper — the upmost/uppermost
out — outer/utter — the utmost/utter most
There are some words in the list that take more than one form in comparative and superlative form.
Each of the two words gives a different meaning; therefore, it is best to know them well before going
any further in this topic.
Late – later, latter; latest, last; old – elder, older; eldest, oldest
Far – farther, further; farthest, furthest; near – nearest, next
Later, latter; latest, last
Later and latest refer to time
Latter and last refer to position
e.g. He is later than I expected.
(he has come late)
I have not heard the latest news. (recent news)