Comparative and Superlative Adjectives

These adjectives are used to compare two or more things. Comparative adjectives can be used by adding the -er suffix to the adjective, which in turn compares two nouns.

Here are some examples:

• I am taller than you.
• She is smarter than her brother.

If the adjective ends in -y, like “easy,” the “y” will be changed to “i” and “er” will be added to form a comparative adjective.

• It is easier to study for an English test than Mathematics.
• Yesterday’s party was crazier than today’s.

On the other hand, superlative adjectives describe a noun when it is compared to two or more other nouns, from highest to lowest, or vice versa. Superlative adjectives include words like “small,” “smaller,” “smallest,” and “big,” “bigger,” and “biggest.” These examples show comparisons from small to the smallest and from big to the biggest.

In the example above, the adjective is “small,” the comparative is “smaller,” and the superlative is “smallest.” Whenever you see an adjective ending with -est, it is a superlative adjective.

For instance:

• Sandra is the tallest girl in her class.
• John is the smartest in his family.