Comparative

When we compare two things or people we look at what makes them different from each other.

For example:

The man on the left is taller than the man on the right.

A car is faster than a bicycle.

Comparative adjectives are used to show what quality one thing has more or less than the other. They normally come before any other adjectives.

For example:

The red bag is bigger than the blue bag.

Forming the comparative

Form	Rule	For example
Words of one syllable ending in 'e'.	Add -r to the end of the word.	wide - wider
Words of one syllable, with one vowel and one consonant at the end.	Double the consonant and add -er to the end of the word.	big - bigger
Words of one syllable, with more than one vowel or more than one consonant at the end.	Add - er to the end of the word.	high - higher
Words of two syllables, ending in 'y'.	Change 'y' to 'i', and add -er to the end of the word.	happy - happier
Words of two syllables or more, not ending in 'y'.	Place 'more' before the adjective.	beautiful - more beautiful

The following adjectives are exceptions to this rule:

• 'good' becomes 'better'
• 'bad' becomes 'worse'
• 'far' becomes 'farther' or 'further'

!Note - When comparing two things like this we put than between the adjective and the thing being compared.

For example:-

• "Mount Everest is higher than Mount Snowdon."
• "Arguably, Rome is more beautiful than Paris.