e.g. pleasant – pleasanter – pleasantest
more pleasant – most pleasant
The second method is used for:
a) most disyllabic adjectives
e.g. careful – more careful – most careful
b) adjectives of more than two syllables,
e.g. marvelous – more marvelous – most marvelous
c) adjectives formed from participles and ingforms,
e.g. tired – more tired – most tried
exciting – more exciting – most exciting
d) adjectives used only predicatively ( they have positive and comparative degrees),
e.g. aware – more aware
afraid – more afraid
e) In compound adjectives the first element forms degrees of comparison with –er, est,
e.g. nicelooking – nicerlooking – nicestlooking
wellknow – betterknown – bestknown
But forms with more and most are more common:
e.g. oldfashioned – more oldfashioned – most oldfashioned
The following spelling rules should be observed in forming the comparative and superlative degrees:
1. Adjectives ending in –y preceded by a consonant change the –y into –i and –er or –est is added
e.g. dusty – dustier – dustiest
But the adjective ending in –y preceded by a vowel remains unchanged.
2. Monosyllabic adjectives ending with a short vowel double their final consonants,
e.g. big – bigger – biggest
But monosyllabic adjectives ending in a double consonant remain unchanged,
e.g. thick – thicker – thickest
3. In adjectives with a mute –e, it is omitted and –er or –est id added,
e.g. pale – pale – palest
A few adjectives have irregular form for the degrees of comparison. They are:
Good – better – best
Bad – worse – worst
Little – less – least
Many (much) – more – most
Far – farther – farthest ( for distance only)
further – furthest ( for distance, time, activity, information meaning ‘additional’ or ‘extra’ )
Old – older – oldest ( for age)
elder – eldest ( for seniority rather than age)
Late – later – latest (for time)
latter – last (for order)
Near – nearer – nearest (for distance)
next (for order)