COMPARING one thing to another can be useful in essay writing, but forming comparatives incorrectly leads to all sorts of problems. The following examples can help you learn how to do it properly. Adding “-er” and “than” can form a comparative.
For short words like “tall”, “short”, “happy” and “big”, take the adjective and add the suffix “-er” to the end, followed by “than”. Remember – “pre” means “before”, so prefixes go at the start of words. Obviously, suffix is the opposite of prefix which means “after”, so suffixes go at the end of words. Later on, we shall examine rules which go with suffixes.
Remember an adjective describes a noun. To make the adjective “big” a comparative you add the suffix “-er” Big + er > bigger – He is bigger than his cousin. You add than to complete the comparison. Happy + er > happier – Jackie is happier than Mary Add the suffix “-er” to the adjective “happy”. Happy ends in a consonant and a “y’, so you need to change the “y” to an “I’ when adding the suffix. Add “than” to complete the comparison.
Use “more” and ‘than” to compare longer words. When you are comparing longer words you do not need to add “-er”. If you want to say the first thing is better or bigger than the second you use “more” and “than”. The head girl is more popular than the head boy. “More” goes in front of the adjective popular “than” goes after the adjective. Add “-er” to the adjective gives you a word that does not exist.
If you want to say the first thing isn’t as good you use “less” instead of “more”. The head boy is less popular than the head girl. If you want to say two things are the same, you replace both words with “as” instead. The head boy is as popular as the head girl.
You replace both words with “as” instead. Put “as” before and after the adjective.
Common forms for best and worst: Sometimes comparing things isn’t enough – you need to say which is the best or worst. You do not need to do anything to the adjectives like good, bad, much/many, little and few. The comparatives of the adjectives are as follows respectively: better, worse, more, less and fewer. The superlative forms are: best, worst, most, least and fewest. The words at the end are superlatives which are most words – you do not need any other comparative words, but you need to use “the”.
With comparatives like better, worse, more, less and fewer you need to put than after them otherwise the sentence will not make any sense. Be careful not to confuse comparatives and superlatives – you cannot say things like “more better” or “worst than”. You can use “-est” to say something is the most.
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One way of saying something has the most of a characteristic is to put “-est” on the end of an adjective. But note that you can use this method for short adjectives. You should treat “-est” just like any other suffix – it follows the same spelling rules.
Examples: These are the greyest clouds. “Greyest” means the most grey. The “y” stays the same because the letter before the “y” is a vowel – e. The heaviest rainfall of the season is still to come. Heaviest means the most heavy. The “y” in heavy changes to “I” as you are adding a suffix that is not – ing.
Ralph is the bravest boy on the island. Because the root word “brave” ends in “e” and the first letter of the suffix is a vowel you drop the “e” when you add “-est”. Superlatives for longer words need most. Longer words with (three syllables or more” do not sound right if you add “-est”. You need to use most instead. For example, it is wrong to say, “He is the powerfullest boy in the class” you just use “most”. There is no such word as powerfullest.
Andrew was the least charismatic prefect in last year’s lot. If you want to say something has the smallest amount of something, use “least” instead of “most” Before we end today’s discussion let us briefly have a look at silent letters and unstressed vowels. Silent letters and vowels – you cannot hear them, but they are there. These nasty little words can spoil your writing if you are not careful.
Some words have silent letters. Silent letters are words which you don’t hear. Words with silent letters are tricky to spell because you cannot hear all the letters when you say the word.
This means you might miss letters out if you are not careful. Make sure you learn correct spellings of common words with silent letters for your examination – it is an obvious mistake for the examiner to notice.
Make sure you do not miss the next instalment to get examples of these words with silent letters.
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