Describing Words : Degrees of Comparisons

This concept explains the role of degrees of comparison in English grammar. It mainly teaches the students about the usage of comparative and superlative degrees in sentences. There is also a list of different degrees of describing words which will help the students to learn better.

In this learning concept, the students will learn:

• Examples of comparative and superlative degrees.
• Difference between both degrees of comparison.
• Exceptions to degrees of comparison rules.

Each concept is explained to class 2 English students using examples, illustrations, and concept maps. After you go through a concept, assess your learning by solving the two printable degrees of comparison worksheets pdf given at the end of the page.

Download the worksheets and check your answers with the worksheet solutions for the concept degrees of comparison.

Definition

• Describing words are those words that give more information about the noun.
• Describing words explain a noun by comparing it to another noun. Adjectives are used to make comparison between two or more nouns.
• While making the comparison, the adjective mostly takes the ending ‘er’ or ‘est’ along with the word ‘than’ is used in such sentences.

Examples:

ADJECTIVE	COMPARATIVE	SUPERLATIVE
Big	Bigger	Biggest
Tall	Taller	Tallest
Small	Smaller	Smallest
Hot	Hotter	Hottest

Comparative Degree

When two things or people are compared to each other, we use the comparative degree of an adjective by placing 'er' to the describing word along with the word than' in the sentence.

Examples:

Superlative Degree

A superlative degree talks about the lowest and the highest quality of the describing words.

Examples:

More about Comparative and Superlative Degree

1. Comparative degree is also used to describe how a particular thing or person changes. In such cases, we can use two comparatives along with the conjunction ‘and’.

         Examples:

1. Petrol is becoming more and more expensive.
2. The elastic just got longer and longer.

      2. Comparative degree is also used to show the quality of a thing in relation to another thing.

         Examples:

1. Snehal ran faster than Jennifer in the race.
2. Rohan was happier than Jade on that day.

      3. Always use ‘the’ before the superlative degree.

          Superlative degree shows that the person, place or thing has the highest or the lowest                  quality in comparison to the rest of the group. When speaking about one particularly                    unique quality, ‘the’ is usually added before the superlative degree.

         Examples:

                a. My lunch box is the smallest out of all.

                b. This mango tree is the tallest in the garden.

Exceptions

1. Some words don’t take suffixes ‘er’ or ‘est’. They take ‘more’ or ‘most’ in the beginning while changing into comparative or the superlative degree.

Examples:

       2. Some words don’t take ‘er’ or ‘est’ and ‘more’ or ‘most’. The words change while making               the comparison. So, don’t add suffixes like ‘er’, ‘est’, ‘more’, and ‘most’ to such words.

Examples: