You would be surprised at how often we are comparing things around us. We establish a sense of relative measurement comparison dozens of times a day. We use words such as smaller and largest all the time throughout the day. These words are adjectives, but since they are comparisons, they are a sub-class of adjectives and called either comparative or superlative.

Adjectives are a part of speech that explains the qualities of a subject whereas the adverb represents the verbs found within a sentence. Both adjectives and adverbs are divided into two forms “comparative and superlative degrees” to indicate the nature of the comparison. A comparative degree is used for judging two people, items, things, places or ideas. Whereas the superlative form indicates the comparison of more than two subjects.

Comparative and superlative adjectives are both found using positive forms of the adjective. Generally you will find that words that exhibit the comparative form end in the spelling -er (such as in the term bigger). They will often include the use of the words more or less. Superlative adjectives tend to end their spelling in -est (such as in the term biggest). You will also find this form is associated with the use of the words most and least.

Short Adjectives and Adverbs:

Short adjectives are words that end with one or two syllables (-y or -le). Short adverbs are one syllable words. To transform them into comparative or superlative:
- Add (-er) for comparative and (-est) for superlative.
- Replace (-y) with (-i) if the -y is led by the consonant syllable. E.g. icy, icier, iciest
- Superlatives are mostly begin with "The" article.

Word ---------- Comparative ---------- Superlative

short ---------- shorter --------------- shortest

pretty---------- prettier -------------- prettiest

Longer Adjectives and Verbs

- Longer adjectives with the adverbs ending with (-ly) should be added with words "more and most".

- Less or Least words should be added when the words represent the adjectives of any length. E.g. bright, less bright, least bright

Word ------------ Comparative ------------ Superlative
intelligent ---------- more intelligent ------- most intelligent
carefully ------------ more carefully ----------most carefully
dangerous ----------- less dangerous ---------- least dangerous

Irregular Forms

Some adjectives and adverbs are irregular forms which cannot be transformed into comparative or superlative degrees by adding more/most or -er/-est. Therefore, they are changed by adding completely different adjectives or adverbs.

Word ----------- Comparative ----------- Superlative
----good ----------- better ------------------ best
---- bad ------------ worse ------------------ worst

Confusion between More/Most and -er/-est forms?

If you are unable to decide whether what form most/more or -er/-est would go with the adjectives or adverbs to turn them into comparative or superlative, look for it in the dictionary. However, never use both the forms together as it is grammatically incorrect.

Faulty - The first poem was more better than the second.

Revised - The first poem was better than the second.