Adjectives.

Adjectives are the third major class of words in English, after nouns and verbs. Adjectives are words expressing properties of objects (e.g. large, blue, simple, clever, economic, progressive, productive, etc) and, hence, qualifying nouns.

Adjectives in English do not change for number or case. The only grammatical category they have is the degrees of comparison. They are also characterized by functions in the sentence.

Degrees of Comparison.

There are three degrees of comparison: positive, comparative and superlative. The positive form is the plain stem of an adjective (e.g. heavy, slow, straight, etc) . The comparative states that one thing has more of the quality named by the adjective than some other thing (e.g.
Henry is taller than John). The superlative states that the thing has the greatest degree of the quality among the things being considered (e.g.
Henry is the tallest boy in the class)

Most one-syllable adjectives, and most two-syllable adjectives ending in
-y, -ow, -er, or consonant +-le , with loud stress on the first syllable and weak stress on the second, form their comparative and superlative by the addition of the suffixes -er and -est.

|Positive |Comparative |Superlative |
|clever |cleverer |cleverest |
|narrow |narrower |narrowest |
|pretty |prettier |prettiest |
|simple |simpler |simplest |

Adjectives derived by prefixes from those that use -er/-est also use these suffixes, even though the addition of prefixes makes them longer that two syllables: unhappy - unhappier -unhappiest

All adjectives other than those enumerated above form their comparative by using the intensifier more and their superlative by using the intensifier the most.

|Positive |Comparative |Superlative |
|interesting |more interesting |the most interesting |
|generous |more generous |the most generous |
|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.

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