Studying Grammar Like Crazy!

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Part of speech
or grammatical category:
Word, term
or idea:
Other notes on
class or type:
Level of difficulty
1 elementary
5 intermediate
9 advanced
Adjectives
Comparative and superlative forms, part 1
.
2-3
Explanation and discussion:
While in many languages adjectives are declined according to gender, case, etc. this is not the case in English. The rules for making the comparative and superlative forms in English are a lot simpler than in many other languages.

There are two basic rules for forming these forms, however there is a list of irregular forms which must be studied.

The basic rules are as follows:

  • for adjectives of one syllable and some adjectives of two syllables, add -er or -est. Note that in some cases you may have to double the final consonant hot becomes hotter or change the -y to -i heavy becomes heavier.
  • for some adjectives of two syllables and all adjectives of three or more syllables, use more or most.


Example(s):
A few examples:
smart smarter smartest
pretty prettier prettiest
handsome more handsome most handsome
intelligent more intelligent most intelligent

Here are a few special cases which must be memorized:

aft after aftermost
bad worse worst
far farther or further farthest or furthest
fun more fun most fun
ill worse worst
good better best
late later or latter latest or last
little less or lesser least
many more most
much more most
near nearer nearest or next
old older or elder oldest or eldest

Note(s):
Exercise(s):
Note: Due to a bug in Microsoft Internet Explorer, you must click next question for the first question. This does not happen in Netscape. In any browser, click on the [a], [b] or [c] for the answer and the next question button to see the next question.

          


Tries:    Right - Wrong Answers:
For this exercise, consider 6 "Great", 5 or better "Very Good", 3 or better "Good" and 2 or better "OK". Remember the score is RIGHT minus WRONG. Zero or less, please study some more.