by Jennie Ruby
A visit with my nephew over the holidays turned out to be an adventure in comparatives and superlatives. Adjectives can be used to compare things. One snowball may be large, a second might be larger, and a third might be the largest. Larger is the "comparative" form of the adjective. Largest is the "superlative" form. The comparative form is used to compare two things, and the superlative is used only when comparing more than two things. So if my nephew has only two snowballs, one of them may be larger than the other, but there is no largest. When he throws one of the two snowballs at me, it might be the larger or it might be the smaller snowball that he throws, but it cannot be the largest or smallest.
So if I am playing school and I answer one of two questions, did I answer the hardest one or the easiest one? Neither. I answered either the harder one or the easier one, but since there were only two questions, there was no easiest or hardest question.
So far, so good, but what about irregular adjectives such as good, bad, many, and little? These are some of our most common adjectives, and our most confusing. Here are the forms for these:
- good, better, best
- bad, worse, worst
- many, more, most
- much, more, most
- little, littler, littlest
- little, less, least
Many and much share the same comparative and superlative forms. With things that can be counted, start with many: I have many Skittles, my sister has more Skittles, but my nephew has the most Skittles. But when it comes to things that come in mass and that cannot be counted, start with much: Did my sister eat much food? I think my nephew ate more food than she did, but I am sure I ate the most food.
With little, you might be referring to size or you might be referring to amount. My nephew petted the littlest puppy [size]. My sister had the least mashed potatoes [amount].
The words more and most have one more job beyond being the comparative and superlative forms of many and much. They can be used to make the comparative and superlative forms of adjectives that do not have their own comparative and superlative forms: My nephew is more talented at drumming than I am. My nephew is the most energetic member of our family after a large meal.
About the Author: Jennie Ruby is a veteran IconLogic trainer and author with titles such as "Essentials of Access 2000" and "Editing with MS Word 2003 and Adobe Acrobat 7" to her credit. Jennie specializes in electronic editing. At the American Psychological Association, she was manager of electronic publishing and manager of technical editing and journal production. Jennie has an M.A. from George Washington University and is a Certified Technical Trainer (Chauncey Group). She is a publishing professional with 20 years of experience in writing, editing and desktop publishing.
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