Comparative Adjectives in English
An American English teacher explains how to use comparative adjectives. 3 patterns and their exceptions.
The comparative form for adjectives shows the difference between 2 things. The teacher has 2 tomatoes – a big and a small one. To describe their difference, he can say the left (to us) tomato is bigger. So the other tomato is smaller.
big → bigger
This tomato is bigger than this cherry tomato.
small → smaller
This tomato is smaller than this larger tomato.
He has 2 cameras: one is cheap (bought 6 years ago for about 20 dollars) and the other is expensive (at about 4,000 dollars).
cheap → cheaper
expensive → more expensive
Comparative sentences often have the word than.
This camera is more expensive than this camera.
Comparative Rules
1-syllable adjectives | 2-syllable adjectives ending in -y | 2+-syllable adjectives |
big → bigger
small → smaller old → older |
noisy → noisier
busy → busier |
interesting → more interesting |
Short (1-syllable) adjectives become comparative synthetically – by adding the –er ending. Most long (2+-syllable) adjectives become comparative analytically – by taking the word more before them. You can’t say more cheap. Some Americans mistakenly say more cheaper. In comparative adjectives we also double end consonants preceded by short vowels. 1st-type comparable adjectives in –y change it to –i-.
Irregular Comparatives
Some irregular adjectives don’t follow these rules.
good → better
This movie is better than the 1 we saw last week.
bad → worse
A hamburger is worse for you than a salad.
fun → more fun