Топик: Adjectives

personal

more personal

the most personal

In a very few cases, English permits a choice between the two devices: commoner / more common, commonest / the most common. Ordinary, when one form is prescribed by the rules, the other is forbidden.

A few adjectives have irregular forms for the degrees of comparison. They are:

good - better - the best

bad - worse - the worst

far - farther - the farthest (for distance)

- further - the furthest (for time and distance)

near - nearer - the nearest (for distance)

- next (for order)

late - later - the latest (for time)

- last (for order)

old - older - the oldest (for age)

- elder - the eldest (for seniority rather the age; used only attributively)

There are some adjectives that, on account of their meaning, do not admit of comparison at all, e.g. perfect, unique, full, empty, square, round, wooden, daily, upper, major, outer, whole, only and some others.

There are sentence patterns in which comparison is expressed:

a) comparison of equality (as … as)

e.g. The boy was as shy as a monkey.

After his bathe, the inspector was as fresh as a fish.

When he had left Paris, it was as cold as in winter there.

b) comparison of inequality (not so ... as, not as ... as)

e.g. His skin was not so bronzed as a Tahiti native’s.

The sun is not so hot today as I thought it would be.

You are not as nice as people think.

c) comparison of superiority (... –er than, ... –est of (in, ever)

e.g. He looked younger than his years, much younger than Sheila or me.

To my mind the most interesting thing in art is the personality of the artist.

My mother was the proudest of women, and she was vain, but in the end she had an eye for truth.