Before we learn about comparing things, let us remind ourselves of what an adjective is. An adjective is a describing word. It is a word that tells us more about a noun (a person, animal, place, or thing). Adjectives tell us about the size, colour, shape, number, or feel of something.
For example, in the sentence, "The tall boy kicked the round ball," the words tall and round are adjectives because they describe the boy and the ball.
In our daily lives, we often look at two things and notice how they are different. We might look at two pencils and see that one is long while the other is short. When we look at two things to find their differences, we are performing a comparison.
In English, we change the form of adjectives when we want to compare two nouns. This special form of the adjective is called the comparative form.
We use the comparative form of an adjective to compare only two people, places, animals, or things. The comparative form tells us that one noun has more or less of a quality than the other noun.
When we write a sentence using a comparative adjective, we almost always use the magic word than right after the adjective. The word "than" links the two things we are comparing.
For example:
In these examples, "stronger" and "longer" are comparative adjectives.
Not all adjectives change in the same way. To make a comparative adjective, we must follow specific spelling and grammar rules based on how long the word is. We measure the length of a word by counting its syllables (the beats or claps in a word).
If an adjective has only one syllable (one beat), we usually add -er to the end of the word to make it comparative.
If the short adjective already ends with the letter e, we do not need to add another "e". We simply add -r.
Sometimes, a short word ends with a consonant, has a single vowel right before it, and another consonant before that. We call this a CVC pattern. When this happens, we must double the last consonant before adding -er.
If an adjective has two syllables (two beats) and ends with the letter y, we must change the y to an i and then add -er.
For longer words that have two or more syllables (and do not end in "y"), we do not add "-er" to the end. Adding "-er" to a long word makes it very difficult to pronounce! Instead, we leave the adjective exactly as it is and write the word more before it.
Some adjectives do not follow any of the rules above. They are irregular, which means they change completely into new words when we use them to compare. You must memorize these special words.
To understand how comparisons work, look at the visual representation below. It shows how the base adjective changes when we compare two things.
https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1516627145497-ae6968895b74.jpg (This image displays children of different heights, showing how we can compare their physical attributes such as height and age.)
Here are clear, complete sentences showing how positive adjectives are transformed into comparative adjectives when comparing two nouns.
Positive: The mango tree is tall.
Comparative: The palm tree is taller than the mango tree.
Positive: A bicycle is slow.
Comparative: A walking pace is slower than a bicycle.
Positive: My tea is hot.
Comparative: Your soup is hotter than my tea.
Positive: This box is heavy.
Comparative: That wooden crate is heavier than this box.
Positive: Maya is happy today.
Comparative: Maya is happier than she was yesterday.
Positive: Reading a storybook is interesting.
Comparative: Reading a storybook is more interesting than watching television.
Positive: This blue dress is beautiful.
Comparative: That red dress is more beautiful than the blue one.
Positive: Amina’s handwriting is good.
Comparative: Chidi's handwriting is better than Amina's handwriting.
Positive: A headache is bad.
Comparative: A toothache is worse than a headache.
In this lesson, we learned that adjectives are describing words, and we can change their forms when we want to compare two nouns. This modified form is known as the comparative form.
To use comparative adjectives correctly, we must pay attention to the number of syllables in the adjective. Short words usually get an -er ending, words ending in y change to -ier, and long words require the word more to be placed in front of them. Finally, we learned that irregular adjectives change completely. Whenever we write a comparative sentence, we use the word than to connect the two items being compared.