DEGREES OF COMPARISON

  

Comparison is a feature in the morphology or syntax of some languages, whereby adjectives and adverbs are inflected or modified to indicate the relative degree of the property defined by the adjective or adverb.

The usual degrees of comparison are the Positive, which simply denotes a property (as with the English words big and fully); the Comparative, which indicates greater degree (as bigger and more fully); and the Superlative, which indicates greatest degree (as biggest and most fully). Some languages have forms indicating a very large degree of a particular quality (called Elative in Semitic linguistics). Other languages (e.g. English) can express lesser degree, e.g. beautiful, less beautiful, and least beautiful.

Degrees of comparison

It refers to adjectives being written in different forms to compare one, two or more nouns which are words describing persons, places and things. The three different forms of comparison are the positive, the comparative and the superlative. It is used when we compare one person or one thing with another. 

There are three Degrees of Comparison in English. They are: 

1. Positive degree. 

2. Comparative degree. 

3. Superlative degree. 

1. Positive degree

When we speak about only one person or thing, we use the Positive degree. 

Examples:

1. This house is big.
2. He is tall.
3. This flower is beautiful.

Each sentence given here deals with only a single noun.

  

 

2. Comparative degree

When we compare two persons or two things with each other,  we use both the Positive and Comparative degrees. 

Examples: 

a. This house is bigger than that one. (Comparative degree) 

This house is not as big as that one. (Positive degree) 

The term “bigger” is comparative version of the term “big”. 

When we compare more than two persons or things with one another, we use all the three Positive, Comparative and Superlative degrees. 

Examples:

a. This is the biggest house in this street. (Superlative) 

This house is bigger than any other house in this street. (Comparative) 

No other house in this street is as big as this one. (Positive) 

The term “biggest” is the superlative version of the term “big”. 

(All these three sentences implies the same meaning.) 

Degrees of Comparison are applicable only to Adjectives and Adverbs. Nouns and verbs do 

not have degrees of comparisons. 

Examples:

1. He is the tallest student in the class. 

(Here,“tallest” is an adjective)

2. Among the members of the group, Mr. Clinton speaks most effectively.  

(Here. “effectively” is an adverb) 

All the terms used in the above-examples are either adjectives or adverbs. 

Now, we have seen all the three Degrees of Comparison. Let us see their models. 

Model -1: “The best”: 

Examples: 

This is the best hotel in this area. 

No other hotel is as better as this on in this area. 

No other hotel is as good as this one in this area. 

Model-2: “One of the best”: 

Examples: 

Calcutta is one of the largest cities in India. 

Calcutta is large than most other cities in India. 

Very few cities in India are as large as Calcutta. 

Model-3: “Not the best”: 

Examples: 

New York is not the largest city in America. 

New York is not bigger than many other cities in America. 

Few other cities in America are at least as large as New York. 

Few adjectives and adverbs get their Comparative forms by simply getting “more” before 

them.  And their superlative terms, by getting “most” before them. 

Examples: 

Beautiful....more beautiful....most beautiful 

Enjoyable...more enjoyable…most enjoyable 

Qualified…more qualified…most qualified 

Few adjectives and adverbs get their Comparative forms by simply getting “er” after them 

and their superlative terms, by getting “est” after them. 

Examples: 

Tall……taller…tallest 

Costly….costlier....costliest 

Simple....simpler....simplest

More Examples:

By deleting the final ‘y’ and adding ‘ier’ and ‘iest’
POSITIVE	COMPARATIVE	SUPERLATIVE
costly	costlier	costliest
dry	drier	driest
easy	easier	easiest
happy	happier	happiest

Irregular Comparisons
POSITIVE	COMPARATIVE	SUPERLATIVE
bad	worse	worst
evil	worse	worst
good	better	best
ill	worse	worst

Superlative	Comparative	Positive
London is one of the biggest city in England	London is bigger than most other city in England	Very few cities in England are so big as London

Superlative	Comparative	Positive
Sheakespear is the greatest of all dramatists	Shakespeare is greater than all other dramatists	No other dramatist is so great as Shakespeare

Positive	Comparative
Lazar is as strong as Lenin	Lenin is not less strong than Lazar