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Latin Handout #2
Comparison of Adjectives
In both English and Latin, the person or thing referred to in a sentence can have more or
less of a particular quality:

Marcus is tall.

Marcus is taller than Veronica.

Marcus is the tallest boy in Latin class.
In order to denote the amount of a quality in Latin, one can add certain suffixes to the
adjective’s stem. For many adjectives, there are three degrees of comparison:
1. The positive degree is the most basic form of an adjective. In this degree, we
cannot tell if the noun being described is more or less of the quality described:

The brown dog plays in the garden.
2. The comparative degree conveys a higher quality of a thing or a person in
comparison to other things or persons.

Fluffy is browner than my neighbor’s dog, Brownie.
The comparative degree is formed when adding the suffixes –ior for masculine &
feminine and –ius for neuter to the stem of adjectives. Note: The comparative
degree is declined according to the third declension.
3.
The superlative degree expresses the highest quality of a noun in comparison to
other nouns which posses the same quality within a sentence:

Fluffy is the brownest dog I have ever seen.
The superlative degree, in most cases, can be formed by adding the suffix –issim–
to the stem:
Masc.
longissimus
Fem.
longissima
Neuter
longissimum
Some materials borrowed from the Descriptive Latin Grammar website. http://www.orbilat.com