Positive comparative

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 memorise 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