Collins Primary Grammar, Punctuation and Spelling

chocolate cake

a wooden box

a velvet scarf

Comparative adjectives and superlative adjectives

When you want to make a comparison between people or things, you need to use comparative or superlative adjectives. In the examples below, taller is the comparative form of tall and tallest is the superlative.

Rory is tall.

Rory is taller than his brother.

Rory is the tallest boy in his class.

Comparative

The comparative shows that a person or thing has more of a certain quality than another person or thing. In this case it is the quality of being tall.

You make the comparative form of an adjective by adding the suffix ‑er at the end.

dull + ‑er = duller

green + ‑er = greener

clever + ‑er = cleverer

Not all comparatives are made like this, though. If the adjective is quite a long word, you use more instead.

beautiful → more beautiful

eccentric → more eccentric

interesting → more interesting

Superlative

The superlative shows that a person or thing has the most of a certain quality out of a group of people or things.

You make the superlative form of an adjective by adding the suffix ‑est at the end.

dull + ‑est = dullest

green + ‑est = greenest

clever + ‑est = cleverest

If the adjective is quite a long word, you use most to make the superlative.

beautiful → most beautiful

eccentric → most eccentric

interesting → most interesting

Good and bad

The adjectives good and bad don’t follow the normal rules for comparative and superlative forms.

There are spelling rules about adding suffixes, and you can see these on pages 81 (#litres_trial_promo)–85 (#litres_trial_promo).

Adverbs

An adverb is a word that tells you something about a verb. They describe the way in which something is done. Many adverbs end with the letters ‑ly.

Some adverbs tell you how:

Ella runs quickly.

The children sing loudly.

Some adverbs tell you where:

We live here.

The plane flew south.

Some adverbs tell you when:

She is going on holiday tomorrow.

Phone the police immediately.

Some adverbs tell you how much:

I really want to see that film.

He was completely exhausted.

Some adverbs tell you how often:

You never come out to play football.

My sister and I always argue about who sits in the front seat of the car.

Some adverbs go at the beginning of a sentence. These give a comment on the whole sentence:

Fortunately, it didn’t rain.