English for travelers

Comparing things

Er & More

Rules

1) Add -er to one syllable adjectives: colder, warmer, nearer…

2) Add -r to adjectives ending in -e: larger, stranger, wiser…

3) Add -ier to adjectives ending in -y: happier, hairier, fancier…

4) For adjectives ending in consonant-vowel-consonant, double the final consonant: bigger, hotter, thinner…

5) More + adjective for two syllable and longer adjectives: more entertaining, more valuable, more enjoyable…

Less and not as/not so

Less and not as/not so with comparatives
We use less with longer adjectives (interesting, beautiful, complicated), but we don’t normally use less with short adjectives of one syllable (big, good, high, small). Instead we use not as … as …, or not so … as … Not as is more common than not so:

The second method was less complicated than the first one.

This new laptop is not as fast as my old one. I’m sorry I bought it now. (preferred to is less fast than my old one.)

Irregular adjectives

adjective	comparative	superlative		example sentence
good	better	the best	irregular	Tara is the best athlete in the school.
well (healthy)	better	the best	irregular	He is still in hospital, but he is better than he was last week.
bad	worse	the worst	irregular	You are the worst driver I have ever known.
far	further	the furthest	irregular	My house is the furthest one.
far	farther	the farthest	regular	My house is the farther one.
old (people in a family)	elder	the eldest	irregular	Ram is my elder brother.
old (general use)	older	the oldest	regular	Your teacher is older than my teacher.