Cambridge Grammar of English Hardback with cd-rom a comprehensive Guide

COMPARISONS OVER TIME

469

Comparatives and superlatives are often used to compare things at different times:

She looks 

healthier than the last time we saw her.

They are 

more optimistic than they were about the direction of the economy.

It was the 

best summer holiday I’d had in five years.

In order to say that there is gradual or progressive change, either the comparative

adjective or adverb can be repeated or the phrase more and more can premodify

an adjective or adverb:

She’s hardly eating and just getting 

thinner and thinner.

I can’t follow him. He’s become 

more and more

incoherent

.

The team started to play 

more and more

aggressively

.

In more formal uses, the adverb modifier increasingly is used for similar purposes:

We are more optimistic, a little wealthier and enjoy the conviction that things

are changing for the better and that the worst is somehow behind us in an

increasingly

distant

past.

Ever

is often used with comparative constructions with than and as … as:

The students scored 

more passes than ever this year, and the exams were as

tough 

as ever.

Ever

and yet can be used as the complement of a superlative construction to

indicate a time dimension. Ever may occur immediately following a superlative

adjective or after the noun. Yet normally follows the noun:

It was 

the biggest ever demonstration of loyalty to the governing party.

That was 

my most difficult

moment

ever.

In tonight’s game the team face 

their stiffest

test

yet.