One syllable adjective. Adjectives in English. Degrees of comparison of adjectives and adverbs

Monosyllabic adjectives are English adjectives that have one or two syllables.

Such adjectives form the comparative degree using the suffix -er, and excellent - using the suffix -est.

Rules for spelling adjectives in the comparative and superlative degrees of monosyllabic adjectives

1. If the adjective ends in -e, then when adding the suffix -er, -est letter e falls.

fine - fin er—the finest
nice - nic er—the nicest

2. If the adjective ends in -y, preceded by a consonant letter, then when adding suffixes -er , -est letter -y changes to -i .

busy -busier - the busiest
funny - funnier - the funniest
lazy - lazier - the laziest

3. If in monosyllabic adjectives the vowel sound is short, then the final consonant is doubled.

big - bigger - the biggest
hot - hotter - the hottest

Degrees of comparison of polysyllabic adjectives

Polysyllabic adjectives are adjectives consisting of three or more syllables.

Such adjectives form comparative degree using the word more, and excellent - with the help of the word most .

interesting - more interesting - the most interesting
beutiful - more beutiful - the most beutiful

Remember!
1. Polysyllabic adjectives in the comparative and superlative degrees do not have endings.
2. The definite article is always used with the superlative form of an adjective the .

Each person or object has distinctive characteristics, properties, signs. And in order to tell your interlocutor about them, you need to be able to correctly use the appropriate adjectives. Today we will study this grammatical category, and also learn its laws of composition and use. In addition, examples will help us quickly understand and remember the rules about simple and polysyllabic adjectives in English. , given in the final section.

Grammatical meaning

The role of English adjectives is no different from the role of Russian ones - to characterize people and describe objects, emphasizing their qualities, characteristics, properties. Despite the fact that there is always a noun in conjunction with this part of speech, it does not change either number, gender, or case.

• I see a gray bird -II seegray bird.
• Gray birds are sitting on the branch of the tree –Gray birdssittingonbranchtree.
• I gave some bread to the gray bird -IgaveA littleof breadthisgray bird.

The only time adjectives change the form in an English sentence is when they are used to compare objects and express superiority.

Comparison forms

Before mastering comparison methods, it is necessary to understand that the composition of adjectives is very important for English grammar. They come in three types: simple, complex and compound.

Compound adjectives are a combination of two words and are written with a hyphen (sometimes together). These combinations consist of adjectives and other parts of speech: numerals, nouns, participles, etc.

• A one-eyed young man lives in this flat – A young one-eyed man lives in this apartment.
• Mother bought a dark blue suit for my brother –Motherboughtmybrotherdark-bluecostume.
• He didn't want to take a low-paid jobHe didn't want to take a low-paying job.

The compound form is rarely used. One- and two-syllable adjectives and words with a large number of syllables are much more common. For the first two groups, comparative forms are formed by changing the stem, and the last category requires additional words. Therefore, we will separately analyze polysyllabic adjectives in English, giving examples of composing their comparative degrees. For now, let's focus on the first group.

Other English topics: Negative sentences in English: construction options

Definitions consisting of one syllable, as well as adjectives of two syllables with the endings le, er, ow, y form degrees of comparison in a suffixal way. For the comparative degree it is the suffix –er, and for the superlative degree it is est. Since only one person or thing can be superior to everyone, the article the is placed before such adjectives.

• Ihaddonemytaskby3 o'clockbecauseitwas easy – I completed my task by three o’clock because it was light.
• YouhaddoneyourtaskfasterthanIdidbecauseyourtaskwas easier – You completed your task faster than I did, because your task was easier.
• Hehaddonehistaskearlierthanothersdidbecausehistaskwas the easiest - He completed his task before everyone else, because his task was the easiest.

When changing the degree for monosyllabic adjectives, several nuances related to spelling are typical. When a definition ends with one consonant preceded by a short vowel, it is doubled in the comparative construction. Here we note that the final unreadable vowel e is never doubled.

• It was hot yesterday –Yesterdaywashot.
• The weather is getting hotter and hotter –WeatherbecomesAllhotterAndhotter.

Words ending in -y with a preceding consonant change that letter to i.

• My sister is lazy – Mysisterlazy.
• He is the laziest pupil in his class –HemostlazystudentVhisclass.

Note that in this group there are special cases that are studied separately.

Polysyllabic adjectives in English - examples of construction

For definitions containing three or more syllables, no changes occur to the word itself. In compiling comparative degrees they are helped by special additional notations: more/less(more/less) And themost/theleast(most/least).

This method is often used to form comparison forms of adjectives ending in –ed and –ing, which many equate to participles.

• He wasn't more surprised than his brother –HewasstrongersurprisedhowhisBrother.
• It was the most interesting day of my trip –Thiswasmostinterestingdayfrommytrips.

Often, two-syllable adjectives are also used this way, especially if they end in –ful, -less, -ous.

• Your husband is more careful than my –Is yourshusbandmorecaring,howmy.
• It is the most useless thing in the world –Thisthe mostuselessthingVworld.
• Palahniuk is more famous writer than Frei –Palahniukmorefamouswriter,howFry.

To words always used for education degrees of comparison additional structures also include: frequent, careless, modern, normal, certain, foolish, correct and etc.

Some representatives of adjectives can even use both methods of constructing comparisons.

This type of words includes common, clever, simple, gentle, stupid, narrow, cruel, pleasant, friendly.

(good, yellow, interesting).

Adjectives in English do not change either by gender, or by number, or by case. Adjectives in English can only be modified by degrees of comparison.

Adjectives can be simple or derived. Simple adjectives have neither prefixes nor suffixes. Derived adjectives contain suffixes or prefixes, or both at the same time.

Adjectives form, as in Russian, two degrees of comparison: comparative and superlative. The basic form of the adjective does not express comparison and is called the positive degree.

Adjective

An adjective is a part of speech that is used to denote a characteristic of an object.

• a clever boy
• an English book (English book)
• good butter (good butter)
• a cold winter

An adjective in English has three forms of degrees of comparison:

• positive degree
• comparative degree
• superlative degree.

Adjective degrees

Formation of degrees of comparison of adjectives

The basic form of an adjective is the positive degree. The comparative and superlative forms are usually formed from the positive degree in one of two ways:

The first way to form degrees of comparison of adjectives. If the form of an adjective in the positive degree consists of one syllable, the form of its comparative degree is formed using the suffix -er, and the superlative form - using the suffix -est, which are added to the base of the form of the positive degree.

The second way to form degrees of comparison of adjectives. From adjectives whose positive form consists of three or more syllables, the comparative degree is formed using the word more, and the superlative degree - using the word most, which are placed before the positive form of the adjective.

From two-syllable adjectives, the comparative and superlative forms are also formed using the words more and most.

Sometimes there are forms of two-syllable adjectives, formed using the suffixes -er and -est. Most often these are adjectives whose positive form ends in -у, -er, -ow.

Some adjectives form special forms of degrees of comparison, and these adjectives must be immediately memorized in all forms.

The adjective old forms degrees of comparison in two ways. In most cases, the suffix -er or -est is added to the base of the positive degree form.

However, in cases where they talk about members of the same family - “elder brother”, “eldest of the brothers”, they use the form elder (senior) or eldest (eldest).

To correctly write forms of degrees of comparison of adjectives, you need to know that when adding the suffixes -er and -est, the final letters of the adjective in the form of a positive degree change as follows:

• y changes to i after a consonant and does not change after a vowel: dry dry (dry) - drier - driest But: gay (cheerful) - gayer - gayest
• e is omitted: nice (good) - nicer - nicest
• the consonant is doubled in one-syllable adjectives after a short vowel: big - bigger - biggest

Using an adjective

The adjective is usually used in a sentence as a definition of a noun and stands before the word being defined. An adjective can also be a nominal member of a compound nominal predicate (predicative) and in this case stand after the linking verb to be.
Not a clever boy. He's a smart boy. (Clever - definition.) .Not is clever. He is smart. (Clever is a nominal member of a compound nominal predicate.)

Not all adjectives are used in these two functions. Adjectives alive (alive), afraid (scared), asleep (sleeping), awake (awake), ill (sick) and some others are used only as a nominal member of a compound nominal predicate.

To denote a lower or lowest degree of quality of one item compared to another, the adjective is usually preceded by the word less (less, less) or least (least of all).

Additional material.

Degrees of comparison of adjectives and adverbs.

in English, just like in Russian, adjectives and adverbs have three degrees of comparison:

1. positive
2. comparative
3. excellent.

In English there are two ways to construct degrees of comparison.

1. For short (one syllable) words:

Notes:

The definite article is often used with a superlative adjective; When constructing degrees of comparison of adjectives in writing:

1. the final consonant with the preceding short vowel is doubled: big (bigger ((the) biggest
2. if there is a consonant before the final -y, then -y goes into -i:
   easy (easy ((the) easiest; early (earlier ((the) earliest
3. when adding -er u -est, the final -e is omitted: (see large above). Spelling features do not affect pronunciation.

2. For long (two or more syllables) words:

It doesn't make sense to lengthen the word any further, so in English we add another short word in front:

• beautiful beautiful
• more beautiful
• easily easy
• more easily easier
• most easily

To pass values least and least of all (least) the words less and least are used respectively:

• less beautiful
• least beautiful least beautiful

Note:

Sometimes monosyllabic words form degrees of comparison using more / less or most / least , and conversely, words consisting of more than one syllable have -er / -est at the end; it depends only on the sound - if some form is perceived better by ear than another, it is put into the sentence: crisp - more crisp - (the) most crisp sounds better than crisp - crisper (the) crispest.

The forms of degrees of comparison of some adjectives and adverbs in English are not formed according to the rule:

Note: The word little can be either an adjective or an adverb; in this case it is used only as an adverb little; if you need to construct degrees of comparison from the adjective small, we use the word small (see above).

Note: the forms elder / eldest are used more often when the speaker is talking about members of his family:

• My father is older than my mother. My father is older than my mother.
• This is my eldest son. This is my eldest son.

In most other cases, degrees of comparison of adjectives are formed using method 1:

old old er old est

The word most with the indefinite article (a most) is not a degree of comparison, but means very: a most beautiful girl is a very beautiful girl.

The word most can appear before a plural noun or pronoun (often with the preposition of) and has the meaning many/most:

The definite article is preserved before the superlative form even if there is no noun: Not is the best. He is the best.

To denote the comparative degree of an adjective, the word than is used; however, in order to avoid repetition of the same noun, the word one is often used as a substitute for this noun or a possessive pronoun in absolute form:

• My car is bigger than their one / theirs. My car is bigger than theirs.
• These cigars are stronger than those ones. These cigars are stronger than those.

In the second part of comparative constructions, you can use pronouns both in the objective case (colloquial version) and the accusative case (literary version, usually with an auxiliary verb):

• She reads more than him / he does. She reads more than him.
• You are taller than me / I am. You are taller than me.
• Didn't come earlier than them / they did. He arrived earlier than them but
• I know him better than her. I know him better than her.
• I know him better than she does. I know him better than she does.

When comparing the same quality, the combination as ... as (same (same) ... as (s) / as (same) ... as (s) is used: She is as beautiful as my mother(She is as beautiful as my mother.

When comparing quality in a negative form, the combination not so ... as is more often used (not such ... as: I am not so beautiful as her / she is.(I'm not as beautiful as her.

When comparing with a multiple effect, the combination as ... as with numerals is used; the second as may be omitted if another comparison object is not mentioned in the situation:

• My sister is twice as beautiful (as yours).(My sister is twice as beautiful (as yours).
• His car is about three times as big (as my car).(His car is three times larger (mine).

The word half in such cases means half as much:

Sometimes a comparison can be strengthened with the help of additional words; more often than others, much is used for this: much more / less beautiful;

The Russian version of than..., the... is translated into English the + comparative degree of the adjective... the + comparative degree of the adjective:

• The faster you come the more you will get. The faster you arrive, the more you will get.
• The sooner you do it the better. The sooner you do this, the better.

Adjectives in English have two degrees: comparative Comparative and superlative Superlative.

Education of degrees of comparison

1. If the adjective consists of one syllable (one-syllable adjective), then the comparative degree is formed using the suffix –er, and the superlative degree is formed using the suffix –est, which are attached to the base form of the adjective:

Adjective Comparative Superlative

full fuller fullest

soft softer softest

green greener greenest

thick thicker thickest

Note: Sometimes spelling changes occur when adding suffixes to adjectives. So, if a word ends in –e, then when adding suffixes the letter e is usually omitted:

large – larger-largest

Exception: be – being

If a word ends in a consonant + y, then when adding suffixes, y will change to i:

happy – happier – happiest

easy – easier – easiest

If a word ends in a vowel + y, then the y will not change when adding suffixes:

grey-grey-greyest

If a one-syllable adjective ends in one vowel and one consonant, then before the suffixes the last consonant is doubled:

thin- thinner - thinnest

big – bigger – biggest

2. If the adjective consists of two or more syllables, then the comparative degree is formed using the word more, and the superlative degree - using the word most, which are placed before the adjective:

magical – more magical – most magical

correct – more correct – most correct

ambitious – more ambitious – most ambitious

3. If an adjective consists of two syllables (a two-syllable adjective) and ends in - y, then when forming degrees of comparison the suffixes - er and -est are used, while -y changes to i:

sunny – sunnier – sunniest

happy – happier – happiest

Note: Some two-syllable adjectives that do not end in -y form degrees of comparison in this way, such as: narrow, simple, quiet, gentle, clever.

4. Degrees of comparison of some adjectives are not formed according to general rules, that is, they are exceptions. These are the adjectives you need to remember:

good – better – best (good – better – best)

bad – worse – worst (bad – worst – worst)

far – farther/further – farthest/furthest (far – more distant – the farthest)

old – older/elder – oldest/eldest (elder – older – oldest)

little – less – least (small – less – smallest)

much/many – more – most (much – more – the biggest)

Using degrees of comparison

comparative

1. The comparative degree is used when it is necessary to compare one person, object, category, concept with another. After the comparative degree, the word than is often used:

Friend ship is more important than richness. Friendship is more important than wealth.

2. To express the process of increasing or decreasing something, the following method is used:

Adjective in comparative degree + and + the same adjective in comparative degree:

The water in the kettle is getting warmer and warmer.
The water in the kettle becomes warmer and warmer.

If the comparative degree is formed using the word more, then the sentence is constructed like this:

The airplanes are becoming more and more durable.
Airplanes are becoming stronger and more durable.

3. To change two things or objects simultaneously or depending on one another, two comparative degrees with the definite article the are used:

The smaller the car is, the easier it is to park.
The smaller the car, the easier it is to park.

4. To express the same or similar qualities of adjectives, the following construction is used:

1) as + adjective + as:

I think you’d better see a doctor. You are as white as a sheet.
I think you better go to the doctor. You are white as chalk.

2) like+ noun or verb phrase:

The cruise ship was like an enormous house.
The cruise ship was like a huge house.

You look like a man who has seen a ghost!
You look like someone who just saw a ghost!

5. To enhance or reduce the quality of an adjective before the comparative degree, the following words can be used: (very) much, a lot, lots, a little, rather, a great deal, far (meaning much), considerably (significantly):

much kinder

far more wonderful

Superlative

The superlative degree is used when one person, object, concept or category in a group is compared and distinguished with two or more persons, objects, categories and concepts of the same group:

She is the cleverest student in his class. She is the smartest student in the group.

Usually the article the is used before a superlative degree:

The most complicated