Degrees of Adjectives Formation Rules Examples are an essential part of the English language. They help us compare one thing with another or with many others.
Understanding how to use degrees of adjectives correctly is crucial, especially for students in Class 7 who are building a strong foundation in grammar.
Degrees of Adjectives
Adjectives have three degrees that show different levels of comparison: positive, comparative, and superlative. These degrees help us compare one thing with another or with many others.
The degree of Adjectives is the difference or comparison between two or more different people or things based on the qualities of adjectives. There are three degrees of adjectives in English.
1. Positive degree:
When we talk about the existence of some quality in a person or a thing, we use the positive degree.
For example,
- Sushma is a tall girl.
- Vasanthi is an intelligent girl.
Even if the qualities of two people or objects are equal, there is a positive degree.
For example:
- Mousumi is as tall as her
Rule: As + adjective + as
Sometimes the Adjective used to compare human quality with animal quality has a Positive Degree.
For example:
(a) John is as brave as a lion.
(b) The wicked man is as cunning as a fox
2. Comparative degree:
When we compare two people or things, we use the comparative degree.
For example,
- Parul is taller than Sushma.
- Jaya is more intelligent than Vasanthi.
Comparative Degree refers to the difference between two persons or things by comparison.
For example:
- Mom is fatter than Tusi.
Rule: Adjective + er + than.
Sometimes more (more) or less (less) is added before the adjective to form a Comparative Degree according to the rules.
For example:
- Ayan is more intelligent than his brother, Nayan.
Rule: More/less + adjective + than.
3. Superlative degree:
Superlative Degree is used to express a comparison between more than two or many people.
For example,
- Sukanya is the tallest of all.
- Sonali is the most intelligent of all.
Superlatives are preceded by ‘the’ and followed by ‘of’.
Rule: The adjective + est + of, in, on.
Sometimes the Superlative Degree of Adjective is made with most or least.
Rule: The + most/least + adjective + of, in.
- The rose is the most beautiful of all flowers.
N. B. The ‘the‘ is not placed before the superlative with my, your, his, her.
- He is my best friend.
- Rabi is our most faithful servant.
Rules and Examples of Formation of Degrees of Adjectives.
The rules of how to form Comparative and Superlative Degrees of adjectives from Positive Degrees are shown below with examples-
Rule 1:
Generally, at the end of one-syllable Adjectives, add ‘er’ for Comparative Degree and ‘est’ for Superlative Degree.
Examples:
| Positive | Comparative | Superlative |
| high strong tall weak cold | higher stronger taller weaker colder | highest strongest tallest weakest coldest |
Rule 2:
In the Positive Degree, if the Adjective has a ‘y’ at the end and a Consonant before it, the ‘y’ will be replaced by an ‘i’ before the ‘er’ is added to the ‘est’.
Examples:
| Positive | Comparative | Superlative |
| busy easy dry ugly happy | busier easier drier uglier happier | busiest easiest driest ugliest happiest |
Rule 3:
In the Positive Degree, if the Adjective has ‘y’ at the end and a vowel before it, the ‘y’ is changed, only ‘er’ and ‘est’ is added to the Comparative and Superlative Degree.
Examples:
| Positive | Comparative | Superlative |
| grey gay | greyer gayer | greyest gayest |
Rule 4:
If there is ‘e’ at the end of the adjective, just add ‘r’ to make Comparative and ‘st’ to make Superlative Degree.
Examples:
| Positive | Comparative | Superlative |
| brave noble white pure safe | braver nobler whiter purer safer | bravest noblest whitest purest safest |
Rule 5:
If a one-syllable adjective has a vowel and a consonant at the end, the consonant is doubled. Then add ‘er’ to make a Comparative and ‘est’ to make a Superlative Degree.
Examples:
| Positive | Comparative | Superlative |
| sad fat thin big hot | sadder fatter thinner bigger hotter | saddest fattest thinnest biggest hottest |
Rule 6:
But if there are two consonants at the end of the adjective or two vowels before a consonant, the consonant is not double.
Examples:
| Positive | Comparative | Superlative |
| cool weak thick | cooler weaker thicker | coolest weakest thickest |
Rule 7:
In the case of two or more syllable adjectives, more is used before the adjective in the comparative degree and most in the superlative degree to indicate excellence. Similarly, less is used in Comparative Degree and least in Superlative Degree to mean negativity.
Examples:
| Positive | Comparative | Superlative |
| difficult beautiful important intelligent faithful | more difficult more beautiful more important more intelligent more faithful | most difficult most beautiful most important most intelligent most faithful |
Rule 8:
Many times some Adjectives can be combined with ‘er’ and ‘est’ to make Comparative and Superlative Degrees, as well as Comparative and Superlative with more/less addition and most/least addition. But both should be used in a variety of ways.
Examples:
| Positive | Comparative | Superlative |
| clever clever | more clever, less clever cleverer | most clever, least clever cleverest |
Rule 9:
If there are some two-syllable adjectives or ‘er’, or ‘ow’ at the end of an adjective, they must add ‘er’- at the end of Comparative and ‘est’ to make Superlative.
Examples:
| Positive | Comparative | Superlative |
| narrow low | narrower lower | narrowest lowest |
Rule 10:
Again there are some words that are Adverb in Positive Degree but Adjectives in Comparative and Superlative Degree
Examples:
| Positive | Comparative | Superlative |
| in out up | inner outer upper | Innermost outermost Uppermost |
Rule 11:
Some adjectives have no comparative degree.
Examples:
| Positive | Comparative | Superlative |
| top down eastern | ———- ——————- ——————- | topmost downmost easternmost |
Rule 12:
Some adjectives do not follow any strict rules for making the Comparative Superlative. These are called Irregular Comparisons. Comparative and Superlative of these adjectives are formed by using different words.
Examples:
| Positive | Comparative | Superlative |
| old late bad good evil ill far | older, elder later, latter worse better worse worse farther, further | oldest, eldest latest, last worst best worst worst farthest, furthest |
Latin Comparatives.
Rule 13:
The following Adjectives are taken from the Latin language so they are named Latin Comparatives. Each of these has ‘or’ at the end. These adjectives do not have any positive or superlative form. They are used only in the Comparative Degree. ‘to’ is used after these instead of ‘than’.
Examples:
- anterior
- posterior
- senior
- Junior
- prior
- superior
- inferior
- Soham is junior to Priyanka.
- I am senior to you.
- You are superior or inferior to him.
Rule 14:
Again there are some words, in which neither ‘than’ nor ‘to’ will be used in the comparative.
- inner
- upper
- outer
- elder
- ugly
- later
- What is the inner meaning of the poem?
- The outer side of the box is rough.
Interchanging of degrees of adjectives in sentences
Positive: He is as intelligent as his brother.
Comparative: His brother is not more intelligent than him.
Positive: This book is not as thick as that one.
Comparative: That book is thicker than this one.
Positive: Very few people are as brave as Rustam.
Comparative: Rustam is braver than most people.
Superlative: Rustam is one of the bravest people.
Positive: No other city of India is as green as New Delhi.
Comparative: New Delhi is greener than any other city of India.
Superlative: New Delhi is the greenest city of India.
Superlative: Maya is one of the tallest girls in the class.
Comparative: Maya is taller than most other girls in the class.
Positive: Very few girls in the class are as tall as Maya.
Superlative: This is not the best book on grammar.
Positive: Some other books on grammar are at least as good as this one.
Comparative: This book is not better than some other books on grammar.
Practice Worksheets for Degrees of Adjectives
Worksheets 1
A. Correct the errors in the use of the degrees of comparison and rewrite these sentences.
- This is the taller building in the town.
- She is the last runner among the students.
- This is the beautiful car I have ever seen.
- Apples are healthy than French fries,
- Cars are fastest than bikes.
- Tarana is thinner than all the girls in the class.
- The weather is finer today.
- The girls seem the happlest than the boys.
- The peacock is more beautifuler than the crow.
- This is more boring film I have ever seen.
Worksheets 2
B. Change the degree of comparison in these sentences without changing the meaning.
- This is the deepest well in the village.
- Hercules was the strongest man in the world.
- My description of the software is briefer than yours.
- No other design of car is as attractive as this one.
- The value of the rupee is less than that of the dollar.
- She dressed best of all her sisters.
- Mohit is one of the fastest drivers of the company.
- No other river in India is as long as the Ganga.
- Jeniya is not as intelligent as her brother.
- Mala is the fairest of all the girls in the group.
- Very few teachers work as hard as Ms Madhuri Sharma.
- Rohit is not the best bowler in the team.
- No other class is as noisy as Class VII C.
- This is one of the best options for you.
- No other student in the class is as good as you are
