Degrees of comparisonC 1

Adjectives

One-syllable adjectives add –er and –est: tall – taller – the tallestIf the adjective ends in –y, this changes to –ier and –iest: dry – drier – the driestIf the adjective ends ina single consonant after a single vowel, the consonant is doubled:Hott – hotter – the hottest

Irregular adjectives good – better – the best bad – worse – the worst far – farther/further – the farthest/furthestTwo-syllable adjectives which end in –y add –er and –est happy – happier – the happiest

• Most other two-syllable adjectives take more and most

ancient – more ancient – the most ancient• Some syllables can take either the endings

er/est or more/the most common, cruel, gentle, handsome, likely,

mature, pleasant, polite, simple, stupid

more is used with comparative degree

• With one-syllable past participle adjectives bored, pleased, worn, creased used with more/lessThese trousers look more worn than the others.• With fun, real, right and wrongShe couldn’t have been more wrong.

• When comparing two qualities I think he was more mad than brave.

Adverbs

• Most adverbs form comparative and superlative with more and most

easily – more easily – the most easily• Adverbs with the same form as adjectives form

comparatives and superlatives the same way as adjectives

fast – faster – the fastest hard – harder – the hardest early – earlier – the earliest straight – straighter – the straightest

• Irregular forms: well – better – the best badly – worse – the worst

Qualifiers with adjectives

to be + (qualifier) comparative + than His new film was better than his previous one.• No, hardly any• A little, slightly, (quite) a bit• A lot, considerably, a great deal, far,

(very)much

as +adjective/adverb + as

• Can be followed by:• Noun or a noun phrase He’s as tall as his father.• Object pronoun He thinks nobody knows as much as him.• A clause He’s as tall as his father is. He thinks nobody knows as much as he does.

• By possible, ever, usual I’ll stay as long as possible. He looked as handsome as ever.• The negative is formed with not as.../not so... She’s not as/so careful as she should be.

Qualifying as... as structure

• Just, almost, nearly, quite, twice, 3 times etc. Mary is just as hard-working as Jane. She works twice as hard as Julie.• Not nearly, not quite, not half Tom is not nearly as well-mannered as Tim.• With negative beginning: nearly, quite, half She doesn’t seem half as kind as Jenny. He doesn’t speak French quite as well as her/she does.

• not anything like as /nothing like as Tom is far more sophisticated than John. John is nothing like as sophisticated as Tom. John is not anything like as sophisticated as Tom.

as + much/many + noun

• Half, twice, three times ... He requires half as much energy as me/I do. I need twice as many players as you offer.

Using a singular noun between an adjective and the second as

The article a/an comes before the noun It used to be a quiet place. It’s not as quiet anymore. It’s not as quiet a place as it used to be.

We can use how, so and too followed by an adjective in a similar way

How important an issue it was for you? It’s not quite so straighforward a problem as it might seem. It’s too difficult a task to solve alone.

So + adj./adv. + that clause

He was so shocked that he couldn’t utter a word.

She speak so quietly that nobody can hear her.

Go so/as far as + to inf.

• To express an action which is surprising or extreme.

One furious woman went as far as to throw tomatoes at the minister.

Gradable and ungradable adjectives

• Ungradable adjectives describe extreme qualities which can’t be ‘more’ or ‘less’

amazing, dead, exhausted, fantastic etc.Use with them: absolutely, completely, quite (= absolutely, completely) , totally, utterly etc.The performance was absolutely amazing.

• Other adjectives are gradable.Use with them: a bit, a little, fairly, quite (= rather, fairly), really, too, veryShe looks very beautiful today.

Order of adjectives

1 judgement2 size3 shape4 colour5 origin6 material7 purpose

Put the adjectives into the right order before the noun

• dining• lovely• round• silk• little• Chinese• brown• table A lovely, little, round, brown, Cinese, wooden, dining table