When we compare two things or people we look at what makes them different from each other.
For example:
The man on the left is taller than the man on the right.
A car is faster than a bicycle.
Comparative adjectives are used to show what quality one thing has more or less than the other. They normally come before any other adjectives.
For example:
The red bag is bigger than the blue bag.
Forming the comparative
Form | Rule | For example |
Words of one syllable ending in 'e'. | Add -r to the end of the word. | wide - wider |
Words of one syllable, with one vowel and one consonant at the end. | Double the consonant and add -er to the end of the word. | big - bigger |
Words of one syllable, with more than one vowel or more than one consonant at the end. | Add - er to the end of the word. | high - higher |
Words of two syllables, ending in 'y'. | Change 'y' to 'i', and add -er to the end of the word. | happy - happier |
Words of two syllables or more, not ending in 'y'. | Place 'more' before the adjective. | beautiful - more beautiful |
The following adjectives are exceptions to this rule:
- 'good' becomes 'better'
- 'bad' becomes 'worse'
- 'far' becomes 'farther' or 'further'
!Note - When comparing two things like this we put than between the adjective and the thing being compared.
For example:-
- "Mount Everest is higher than Mount Snowdon."
- "Arguably, Rome is more beautiful than Paris.