Parts of Speech: 5. Adjectives—Degrees of Description

The Greek situation is absolutely unbelievable! . . .  The amuse-bouche was quite delightful. . . . His approach was very sensitive. . . . She was more than cruel. . . . His position was completely unethical. . . . It was very brave of her. . . . He was steadfast in his support. . . . The conversation became very political. . . . He is super-intelligent. . . .

Adjectives in language are the essence of how we express ourselves, our likes and dislikes, our opinions, our politics, and our gossip. The different adjectival forms are used not only to describe or limit nouns and pronouns, but also to compare them to one another.

What Is an Adjective?

An adjective is a word that describes, demonstrates, or limits a noun or a pronoun.

These girls 

(“These” is an adjective that is being used 
to demonstrate the noun “girls.”)

Lucky me

(“Lucky” is an adjective being used 
to describe the pronoun “me.”)


The taller of the two boys
(“Taller” is being used to limit the discussion 
to only one of the two boys.)

Okay, so you’ve got that, have you—and what’s the big deal, you ask? Well, knowledge about this part of speech is like adjectives themselves—all a matter of degree. . . .

If you want to say that something is, for example, more or less beautiful, ugly, tall, or short than something else, you need to use the comparative or superlative form of the adjective. But how do you know whether to form the comparative or superlative form by taking the positive form and adding er or est—or by using it with more or most?

Ms. Picky will give you some general guidelines, but, as you know by now, English is a peculiar language, and there are exceptions to every rule!

The Three Degrees of Comparison

1. The positive form of the adjective “smart” says that Marcella is smart, but does not specify that she is more or less smart than anyone else:

Marcella is smart.

2. The comparative form compares Marcella’s smartness with the smartness of her sister:

Marcella is smarter than her sister.

3. The superlative form says that Marcella is one of a kind (at least in her department), and there are no equals:

Marcella is the smartest person 
in the whole department.

One-Syllable Adjectives That End in a Consonant

If an adjective has only one syllable, its comparative and superlative forms are created by simply adding er and est for an adjective ending in a consonant:

hard, harder, hardest

One-Syllable Adjectives That End in a Vowel

One-syllable adjectives that end in a vowel form their comparatives and superlative sby adding r or st to the positive form:

large, larger, largest

One-Syllable Adjectives That End in a Consonant Preceded by a Vowel

If an adjective has only one syllable, but ends in a consonant preceded by a vowel, the comparative and superlative are formed by adding er or est to the positive form, but the final consonant of the positive form is doubled, to preserve the correct pronunciation:

flat, flatter, flattest

Two-Syllable Adjectives

With adjectives of two syllables, the comparative and superlative forms are created by using more or most with the positive form:

orange, more orange, most orange

Two-Syllable Adjectives That End in Y
Two-syllable adjectives that end in y change the y to i and add er or est:

Funny, funnier, funniest

Three-Syllable Adjectives

Three-syllable adjectives form their comparatives and superlatives by using more or most with the positive forms:

Spectacular, more spectacular, most spectacular

Some Other Examples

So there you have it, except, of course, for the exceptions—irregular adjectives. . . .

Irregular Adjectives

Irregular adjectives are those that follow none of the rules above in forming their comparatives. Some examples of irregular adjectives are good, better, best and bad, worse, worst.


And One More Thing—Common and Proper Adjectives
Most adjectives are common, and thus lower-cased. A proper adjective is one that has been formed from a proper noun (e.g., Russian, Persian, Republican, or Democrat) and is thus capitalized.

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