Language Matters: Comparatives and Superlatives

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What are the rules for the formation of comparative and
superlative adjectives and adverbs in English? Look at the questions below and consider the examples (all, unless otherwise stated, from authentic discourse and found using various corpora including those accessible in the Lextutor concordancer) before you scroll down to the Commentary.

Question 1

a. Look at the textbooks you use with your
learners. Most series will deal at some point with comparative and superlative
adjectives. Do any of them mention comparative and superlative adverbs? Eg
: 

• She speaks English more
  fluently than she speaks German 
• Hawaii is one of the most ethnically diverse
  regions in the world. 

What about the grammar book(s) that you use for your own
reference?

b. How do they explain the difference between a comparative and superlative? Could their explanation deal with:

• It's one of the better libraries in the town.
• It's one of the best libraries in the town

c. What rules do these books give for the
formation of comparatives and superlatives with one-syllable adjectives (and
adverbs if mentioned)?

d. To what extent do these rules explain
the following examples of adjectives, again

• 
  ... and this is even more
  true when you are ill.
• ... that if I told anyone, it
  would make it more real.
• Hailed as the `most real,
  meatiest, heaviest metal album of 1994" by ...
• ... minimum sentences making
  drug laws more fair or just more severe?
• the city is a lot more
  quiet and a lot more calm than it has been

Consider also right,
wrong, vivid and apt.
What would be their comparative and superlative forms?

 

Question 2

 

a. What about two-syllable words? How well
do your grammar books/textbooks deal with these? How well do they explain the following, again authentic examples from a concordancer.

• ... it is very rare in infants and becomes
  much commoner in the middle and older age groups. 
• Skin cancer in Britain is
  becoming more common ...
• The alley
  grew narrower and then ...
• The longer the lens, you use,
  the more narrow the angle of view...
• and breathing often
  becomes more shallow and rapid.
• This branch canyon was
  much shallower than Many Ruins
• ...it seems even more
  stupid now.
• It
  gets stupider still.
• the city is a lot more
  quiet and a lot more calm than it has been.
• She was much quieter...
• Hailed as the `most real, meatiest, heaviest metal album of 1994" by ...

 

b. And what do they say about two-syllable
adjectives ending in -y? Do they make any distinction between those and the
ones above? To what extent do their explanations match the following? 

• ... it doesn't make you any more happy,
• Conservatives on the opposite
  wing are no more happy.
• `I'm
  feeling healthier, more happy with myself and just in
  general," she said. `
• ...he found women hard to
  fathom and was more happy in the company of men.
• But there's other things that
  I'm more happy about--
• In Ulster I met the most
  friendly, hospitable people in the world, but I also
• ... impressive and important.
  We parted in most friendly courteous fashion.
• ... for this must be one of
  the most friendly places on earth
• ... that'd be even more
  funny wouldn't it.

 

c. But what about if the two-syllable
words ending in -y are adverbs? Is there any choice then? Consider:

• She speaks English more fluently than she speaks
  German 
• Hawaii is one of the most ethnically diverse regions
  in the world.

 

d. And what rules are given for words with three or more syllables - expensive, comfortable ridiculous etc?

COMMENTARY

You
probably found considerable differences between the "standard" rules
that you'll find in any coursebook and most grammar books, and the examples in
the questions above. I'm afraid that if you compare the “standard” rules
against how people really use the language they don't stand up. That doesn't
mean that they can't be useful in the classroom - particularly at beginner
levels. They are generalisations - safe and simple rules that low-level
students can cope with and which work in a lot of cases. But sooner or later
your students are going to come up against real usage, and will start asking
questions like "But
I thought XXX so why does it say here YYY". You therefore
need to know the way these words are really used and be ready to answer the
questions when they come up, or introduce the more complex rules when the
students are ready for them.

In the following discussion, italics mean a summary of one or more  “standard” textbook explanations while the analysis that follows is mine.

"RULE" ONE:

Comparatives are used to compare two things, e.g. "Russia is
bigger than China"

The two things being
compared must be nouns, noun phrases or pronouns, e.g.

"They are more experienced
than the current group of new recruits"



This
presumes that comparatives and superlatives are adjectives. But
don't forget that adverbs also have a comparative /superlative  form :

• She speaks English more fluently than
  she speaks German
• Hawaii is one of the most ethnically
  diverse regions in the world.

And of course, as adverbs, they modify verbs and adjectives rather than nouns.

"RULE" TWO:

Comparatives are used to compare two things, e.g. 

• "Russia is
  bigger than China".

If there are three or more
things a superlative would be used 

• Billy is the biggest boy in the class.

unless one can be compared to the others as
a group, e.g.

• "Billy is bigger than the
  other boys in his class"

No. This
doesn't hold up at all. Look at these examples :

• David is
  stronger than Billy, but Billy is the fastest of the two.
• David is
  stronger than Billy, Paul, Brian and Fred....

Any time
there is a direct comparison, then the comparative is used regardless of the
number. Similarly, the superlative doesn't depend on number but just expresses
the idea of "the utmost" of a group - which may be a group of two. As always, it is meaning which
determines the choice, not some abstract rule about number. See also the example of "one of the better/best libraries" above.

"RULE" THREE:

There are various rules for the formation of a comparative
adjective:

Shorter adjectives have an
-er form: long - longer; short -shorter



"Short"
is a bit vague here - but presumably they mean one-syllable. This is generally but not
always true. Look at these examples:

• ... and
  this is even more true when you are ill.
• ... that
  if I told anyone, it would make it more real.
• Hailed as
  the `most real, meatiest, heaviest metal album of 1994" by ...
• ...
  minimum sentences making drug laws more fair 
• the city
  is a lot more quiet and a lot more calm than it has been

True, fair and calm also
have -er/-est forms, but real? It sounds very odd to me. Searching through corpora, I only found one example : "in the realer world
out there, in the arctic wastes ..."

Consider also right, wrong, and apt. What would be their
comparative/superlative forms? Are they as "flexible" as some of the others? Corpus research only brings up examples with "more"

• you couldn't be more right.
• If we get it wrong in year two, it will be even more wrong in year three
• He no doubt concurs in principle but is more apt to make exceptions

However, the general "flexibility" is particularly evident when the one-syllable
adjectives form the first part of a compound expression :

• ... the
  opposition party's widest-ranging policy review
• ... the
  reforms, which are generally agreed to be the most wide-ranging and
  fundamental since...
• at a time
  when they are most hard-pressed at work
• Often the
  World Bank and the IMF have required the hardest-pressed countries
  to adopt
• until
  a more long-term solution is found
• a
  fundamental error which will exact an even greater toll in the longer
  term

But if
one-syllable words are sometimes flexible, that's even more true for
two-syllable words. Have a look at these :

• ... it is
  very rare in infants and becomes much commoner in the middle
  and older age groups.
• Skin
  cancer in Britain is becoming more common ...
• The alley
  grew narrower and then ...
• The longer
  the lens, you use, the more narrow the angle of view...
• and
  breathing often becomes more shallow and rapid.
• This
  branch canyon was much shallower than Many Ruins
• ...it
  seems even more stupid now.
• It
  gets stupider still.
• the city
  is a lot more quiet and a lot more calm than it has been.
• She
  was much quieter...

This goes
for two-syllable adjectives ending in "y" too. A standard rule is:

"RULE"  FOUR:

Adjectives
ending y, change y to ier in the comparative: funny - funnier, happy - happier  and to -iest in the superlative: funny - funniest. happy - happiest.

But the concordancer pulls up lots of more/most examples
as well:

• ... it
  doesn't make you any more happy,
• Conservatives
  on the opposite wing are no more happy.
• `I'm
  feeling healthier, more happy with myself and just in
  general," she said. `
• ...he
  found women hard to fathom and was more happy in the company
  of men.
• But
  there's other things that I'm more happy about--
• In Ulster
  I met the most friendly, hospitable people in the world, but I also
• ...
  impressive and important. We parted in most friendly courteous
  fashion.
• ... for
  this must be one of the most friendly places on earth
• ... that'd
  be even more funny wouldn't it.

It's tempting therefore to tell learners that for  2-syllable words  "It doesn't matter -use
which you like". But the situation is more complex than that. Could you use the -er/est version of the words with the following 2-syllable adjectives (and  many others too numerous to list)?

• The situation is more complex than that.
• .. take a more active role
• this is one of the most basic principles...
• What is the most current version?

The British National Corpus brings up no examples of -er/-est forms for any of these words.

However, he
more/most rule does hold up for 3+syllable words, you'll be pleased to note :)

"RULE"  FIVE:

All
comparative adverbs are formed using more + adverb + than, e.g. Ringo runs more
quickly than Rex.



Again, not
true for one syllable adverbs, which take -er/est :

• She works harder than most of the class.
• He runs faster than I can.
• Our old dog sleeps longer these days than he used to..

"RULE"  SIX

Two
things can be compared using (not) as.... as:

"Barcelona are as good as Manchester
United"

"Maradonna was not as good as
Pele."



OK, but note
that in the negative, so..as is very common : 

• It was hard, but not so hard as
  cross-country skiing

"RULE" SEVEN

The superlative is preceded by the definite article - eg It's the most interesting book I've ever read.

But isn't this just due to the "normal" meaning of the definite article in this context, indicating shared knowledge between reader and writer (see here)? The article modifies the noun "book", not the superlative expression. There are many examples of superlatives with no use of "the" at all:

• That's my most vivid memory of the time.
• Britain's biggest baker, Ranks Hovis McDougall, has emerged as...
• One of Rome's oldest places...
• ...the book is most interesting in its account of...
• It's Britain's second largest union
• ..the environment in which you will feel happiest.
• This page is about choosing which Key Concepts are most relevant for your particular group of learners 

The "rules" given in textbooks are therefore often simplifications of the real situtation and/or (like the rule regarding the use of the definite article) based on frequency of occurrence rather than on natural vs unnatural language use.

Two points  I might add to all this, which are rarely
covered in textbooks, are that:

a) the comparative is often intensified using a
lot, much, considerably, a bit, far etc: 

• It
  was far harder than I expected
• He
  was much more friendly than we expected
• She
  speaks a lot more fluently than she used to.

while the superlative can be intensified by expressions such as "by far" or  "easily" and "much" or "pretty much"

• It's pretty much the loudest acoustic guitar I've played
• It was by far the worst day of my life.
• He's easily the most qualified candidate.

and also...

b)  not every construction using most + adj/adv is a superlative. "Most" can also be used as an intensifier with the meaning "extremely". Some examples:

• It was a most frank discussion = It was an extremely frank discussion.
• I found him most rude = I found him extremely rude.
• She spoke most fluently = She spoke extremely fluently.

As these are not superlatives, the -est version cannot be used even where it would be possible in the superlative form.