Degrees of Comparison Definition

A degree of comparison is a type of adjective used in English to contrast one thing or person with another that shares the same attribute. It is connected to the sentence’s adjective or adverb. The listing of an adjective or adverb’s positive, comparative, and superlative forms is what the Collins Dictionary refers to as the “degree of comparison.” In other words, it can be claimed that one can compare nouns that have similar properties or attributes using the degree of comparison.

Degrees of Comparison Types

There are three types of degrees of comparison named:

• Positive degree of comparison.
• The comparative degree of comparison.
• Superlative degree of comparison.

Positive Degree of the Adjective

The primary form of the adjective is called the positive degree. It is the adjective itself. For example,

• Ron is tall.
• The bridge is long.
• Michael is a bad
• Monica is studious.
• The scenery of beautiful.

Comparative Degree of the Adjective

The comparative degree of the adjective is used when two persons or things are compared. To change the positive degree into comparative, the adjective is adjoined with ‘er’ or ‘more’. If we take the previous examples into consideration, they are written in the comparative degree as follows:

• Ron is taller than Donald.
• The Howrah bridge is longer than the Victoria bridge.
• Michael is worse than Adam.
• Monica is more studious than Mary.
• The scenery in this room is more beautiful than the one in that room.

Superlative Degree of the Adjective

When comparing three or more nouns or subjects, the superlative degree is used in the sentence. Let us, again, take the above three adjectives and write them in the superlative degree. They can be written as follows:

• Ron is the tallest person in the room.
• The Howrah bridge is the longest bridge in the world.
• Michael is the worst person I’ve seen.
• Monica is the most studious student in the room.
• That scenery is the most beautiful scenery of all.

 

Forming the Comparative and Superlative Degrees

Here are the rules for forming the comparative and superlative degrees of adjectives:

Here are the rules for forming the comparative and superlative degrees of adverbs:

Rule 1. When two items/people are compared, a comparative degree is used by putting ‘er’ to the adjective word in association with the word ‘than’. In some cases ‘more’ is used.

Comparative degree example:

• She is smarter than her sister.
• She is more cheerful than her sister.

Similarly, when more than two things/people are compared, the superlative degree is used by putting ‘est’ to the adjective word or in some cases ‘most’ is used.

Superlative degree of comparison examples:

• He is the strongest wrestler.
• He is the most handsome actor.

Rule 2. ‘More’ is used when you compare qualities of a single thing/person. Even if the first adjective is a single syllable word.

Degree of comparison examples:

Incorrect – She is smarter than clever.

Correct – She is more smart than clever.

Rule 3. Do not use double comparative adjectives or superlative adjectives.

Degree of comparison examples:

Incorrect – These mangoes are more tastier than those.

Correct – These mangoes are tastier than those.

Rule 4. Never use ‘more or most’ with adjectives that give absolute sense.

Degree of comparison example:

Incorrect – This track is more parallel to that one

Correct – This track is parallel and the other is not.

Rule 5. There are a few adjectives that are accompanied by ‘to’, like, senior, junior, superior, inferior, preferable,  prefer, elder. Do not use ‘than’ with these adjectives.

Degree of adjective examples:

Incorrect: I am elder than her.

Correct: I am elder to her.

Incorrect – This car brand is superior than that.

Correct – This card brand is superior to that.

Rule 6. When comparing two things, similarity should be there, i.e. similar things should be compared.

Examples of degree of comparison:

Incorrect – This wall colour is more beautiful than the old one. (wall colour is compared with the wall)

Correct  – This wall colour is more beautiful than that of the old one. (compare wall colour with wall colour)

Rule 7. When the comparative degree is used in the superlative degree sense

1. Use ‘any other’ when thing/person of the same group is compared.

Degree of comparison example:

Incorrect: Reena is smarter than any student of her class.

Correct: Reena is smarter than any other student of her class.

1. Use ‘any’ if comparison of things/person is outside the group.

Incorrect: Delhi is cleaner than any other city in Bangladesh.

Correct: Delhi is cleaner than any city in Bangladesh.

Rule 8. When in the same sentence two adjectives in different degrees of comparison are used, both should be complete in themselves.

Incorrect- She is as good if not worse than her sister.

Correct – She is as good as if not worse than her sister.

Rule 9. To show whether the difference between the compared thing/person is small or big, we use quantifiers for the comparative degree of an adjective such as (A bit, a little, a lot, far, much, a great deal, significantly, etc).

Example:

• My hostel is only marginally bigger than yours.
• She is a little more popular than her sister in their school.
• Australia is slightly smaller than Africa.

We don’t use quantifiers with superlative degrees of adjectives but there are certain phrases commonly used with the superlative degrees of comparison.

Degree of Comparison Example:

• In metropolitan cities, metros are by far the cheapest mode of transportation.
• Sanskrit is one of the oldest languages in the world.
• Siddhivinayak is the second richest temple in India.

Rule. 10. While changing the degree of comparison for the irregular adjectives, the word completely changes instead of adding ‘er’ or ‘est’.

Examples:

• She has little milk in the jar.
• She has less milk than he has.
• She has the least amount of milk.

 

The degree of adjectives, positive, comparative and superlative are given below in the list format. Candidates can go through the degrees of comparison list and download the PDF which also gives the rules of degrees of comparison.

 

Degrees of Comparison – FAQs