Comparatives and Superlatives

Comparatives and superlatives help us compare people, places, or things.

There are two ways to form comparatives. For most long adjectives, which have three or more syllables, we use more, as in, "Sarah is more beautiful than Martha." With short adjectives, which have only one or two syllables, we add er to the end of the word, as in, "Jacob is smarter than Ed." For short adjectives ending in y, like "happy," we drop the "y" and add ier, as in, "I am happier now that I quit my job."

Similarly, we form superlatives with the most or -est, depending on the length of the adjective. With long adjectives we say, "He is the most intelligent person I've ever met. With short adjectives we say, "Johhny is the fastest runner on the team." For short adjectives ending in y, we drop the "y" and add iest, as in, "She is the prettiest girl in the world."