COMPARATIVES/SUPERLATIVES

COMPARATIVES/SUPERLATIVES

1. Comparative and superlative adjectives are used to compare the characteristics of objects or people.

2. Comparative adjectives are used to compare two objects or people. In the construction of the sentence, both presented in the form of nouns. One of they function as the subject of the sentence and the other as object.

   • The comparison is made through the comparative adjective and the conjunction "than".
     • Sentence Structure
       • Noun (subject) + verb + comparative adjective + than + noun (object)
         • EXAMPLES
           • *Raul is older than Juan
             • *Chía is colder than Bogotá
               • *Angela is younger than Juanita
                 • *My friends house is bigger than the one on the corner
                   • *Raul is taller than Daniel

3. Superlative adjectives in English express a quality to its fullest extent. They are also known as benchmarks of excellence.

   • Sentence Structure
     • noun (as subject) + verb + the + comparative adjective + noun (as object)
       • EXAMPLES
         • *The colpatria building is the largest in the city
           • *Everest is the highest mountain in the planet
             • *Dogs are the friendliest pets
               • *Sandra is the oldest of three sisters
                 • * Chia is older than cota

4. Rules for forming regular comparatives and superlatives

   • When the adjective has a syllable: Adjetive - Tall, Comparative - Taller, Superlative - The Tallest
     • *Juan is taller than Jose
   • when the adjective has two syllables: Adjetive - Preious, Comparative - more precious, Superlative - The most precious
     • * Gold is the most precious metal in the world
   • when the adjective has two syllables and ends in y: Adjetive - Busy, Comparative - Busier, Superlativo - Busiest
     • * Hospitals are the busiest now
   • when the adjective has three syllables or more: Adjetive - Important, Comparative - more Important, Superlative: The most important
     • * English is more important than dance

5. Irregular comparatives and superlatives

   • When forming comparatives and adjectives they totally change their form, they are basically different words.
     • malo / bad - worse - the worst lejos / far - farther - the farthest (distancia) lejos / far - further - the furthest (alcance) bueno / good - better - the best tarde / late - later - the latest/last menos / less - lesser - the least poco / little - less - the least (amount) muchos / many - more - most mucho / much - more - most