Degree of Comparison Rules with Examples, Types & Excercise

Degree of Comparision Rules: If you are someone peculiar about grammar rules in English, then there is no escape from admiring adjectives for you. Apart from highlighting the key attributes of nouns and pronouns, adjectives are just the right tool to spice up your boring speeches and sentences. But, there is more to unravel in adjectives than you think, and that is where the degree of comparison comes into the picture. It not only helps you compare the qualities of two or more than one noun or subject but also forms a significant part of the High School syllabus, competitive exams, and proficiency tests.

So, let’s dive deeper into this blog article to learn more about the degree of comparison rules with examples, and the its different types to give specifications in a sentence.

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What is the Degree of Comparison?

Adjectives are suitable to characterise, quantify, change, or identify nouns/pronouns. Degrees of adjectives or degrees of comparison that compare one thing/person to another exist for adjectives.

There are three levels of comparison for adjectives:

• Positive degree of adjectives
• The comparative degree of adjectives
• Superlative degree of adjectives

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What are the 3 Types of Degrees of Comparison?

There are three types of degree of Adjectives for comparison: positive, comparative and superlative.

I. In the case of one item or person, the positive is used.
II. In the case of two items or persons, the comparative is used.
III. In the case of three or more three items or persons, the superlative is used.

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7 Important Rules of Degree of Comparison

Let’s now have a look at the basic rules of Degree of Comparison.

Rule 1: When the comparison is of a single entity, or between two people; more or most comes into the usage.

For Example, Rita is smarter than Gita – Incorrect
Rita is more smarter than Gita – Correct

Rule 2: When the comparison is between two different qualities of one person or entity; more is used.

For Example, He is wiser than shrewd – Incorrect
He is more wiser than shrewd – Correct.

Rule 3: Double comparatives or superlatives are not used anymore for comparison.

Rule 4: The comparison must be between two similar things.

For instance:
If we are comparing speeds, the comparison must be between the speeds of either a single entity or two or more entities. 

Rule 5: In the case where ‘than’ or ‘as’ is followed by a first-person/second-person pronoun, the verb can be omitted, but not in the case of a third person. 

Example:
She is not as smart as her sister – Incorrect
She is not as smart as her sister is – Correct

Rule 6: A list of words mentioned below must be followed by ‘to’ and not by ‘than’.

• Senior
• Superior
• Elder
• Junior
• Inferior
• Preferable
• Prefer

For Example: She is junior to me.

Rule 7: We can’t use ‘More’ or ‘Most’ for adjectives that make absolute sense in themselves. For words like unique, parallel or universe.

Examples of Degree of Comparison Rules

These were the rules of degree of comparison. Now let’s have a look at the various examples: 

POSITIVE	COMPARATIVE	SUPERLATIVE
big	bigger	biggest
Small	smaller	smallest
good	better	best
brief	briefer	briefest
Beautiful	More beautiful	Most beautiful
Busy	Busier	Busiest
bright	brighter	brightest
clean	cleaner	cleaner
Cheap	cheaper	cheapest
expensive	More expensive	Most expensive
close	closer	closest
clear	clearer	clearest
dark	darker	darkest
deep	deeper	deepest
dry	drier	driest
dense	denser	densest
Cool	cooler	coolest

Also Read: English Vocabulary: Tips to Improve

Degree of Comparison Exercises

Now let’s take a look at our progress by solving a few questions.

Explore more exciting reads below:

More from Idioms	More from Synonyms	More from Antonyms
Idioms to Express Sadness	Synonyms of Ephemeral	Antonyms of Misogyny
Idioms to Express Surprise	Synonyms of Welcome	Antonyms of Brave
Idioms to Express Friendship	Synonyms of Cry	Antonyms of Selfish
Idioms to Express Excitement	Synonyms of Huge	Antonyms of Victim
No Pain No Gain Meaning	Synonyms of Jovial	Antonyms of Lazy

FAQs

So, this was all about the degree of comparison rules. Hope you found it to be helpful and informative. For more such content, stay connected to Leverage Edu!