Comparatives and superlatives

When we're comparing a feature or quality in two nouns, we use comparatives. There are some rules we need to follow for turning an adjective into a comparative:

• If the adjective ends in "e", we add "r" at the end of the word.
• If the adjective ends in a consonant, we add "er" at the end of the word (most of the times).
• If the adjective ends in "y, we change the "y" for an "i" and then we add "er" at the end of the word.
• If the adjective ends in vowel+consonant (only "g", "t" or "n"), we double the consonant and then we add "er" at the end of the word.

However, these rules are only for short adjectives. When the adjective is longer that three syllables, we only add "more" before the adjective.

Examples:

 Angry _____ Angrier

Brave _____ Braver

  Clean _____ Cleaner

       Intelligent _____ More intelligent

The superlatives are the words that we use when we want to say that a noun presents a quality more marked that any other. To form the superlatives from adjectives there are also some rules:

• If the adjective ends in "e", we add "st" at the end of the word.
• If the adjective ends in a consonant, we add "est" at the end of the word (most of the times).
• If the adjective ends in "y, we change the "y" for an "i" and then we add "est" at the end of the word.
• If the adjective ends in vowel+consonant (only "g", "t" or "n"), we double the consonant and then we add "est" at the end of the word.

However, these rules are only for short adjectives. When the adjective is longer that three syllables, we only add "the most" before the adjective.

Examples:

 Angry _____ Angriest

Brave _____ Bravest

  Clean _____ Cleanest

            Intelligent _____ The most intelligent

We need to be very careful because there are nouns with irregular comparatives and superlatives (they don't follow any rule), and the only way to know them is learning them by heart. For example:

 Good _____ Better/Best

      Bad _____ Worse/Worst

In this webpage we can find a very complete list of adjectives with their respective comparative and superlative: http://www.curso-ingles.com/gramatica-inglesa/compar-lista.php

Here are three webpages where we can practice comparatives and superlatives:

http://www.saberingles.com.ar/curso/lesson12/05.html

http://web2.uvcs.uvic.ca/elc/studyzone/330/grammar/regcom1.htm

http://www.usingenglish.com/quizzes/45.html