Comparison Of Adjectives

Chalk is white, milk is whiter, snow is the whitest.

It will be noticed in the above statements that the whiteness of chalk, milk, and snow are compared; that the milk has a greater degree of whiteness than the chalk, and that the snow has the greatest degree of whiteness.

Here the adjectives white, whiter, and whitest vary in form to express different degrees of the quality of white ness.

These three degrees are the positive, white; the comparative, whiter; and the superlative, whitest.

Tell the three degrees of comparison in the adjectives in the following sentences:

1. My apple is large, Jane's is larger, and Mary's is the largest.

2. The sky in France is blue, ours is bluer, and Italy's is the bluest of all.

3. This book is pretty, yours is prettier, but my mother's is the prettiest.

Comparison of adjectives is their use to express quality in different degrees.

1. He is a wise man.

2. This is a sharp knife.

3. This is a large apple.

The positive degree of an adjective is its form to express a quality without indicating the degree of the quality.

1. He is a wiser man than his friend.

2. He is less prosperous than his neighbor.

3. That is a sharper knife than mine.

The comparative degree of an adjective is its form to express a higher or a lower degree of a quality than is expressed by the positive.

1. He is the wisest man in the country.

2. This is the sharpest knife in the room.

3. You have the largest apple.

4. You should not be the least studious boy in the class.

The superlative degree of an adjective is its form to express the highest or lowest degree of a quality.

There are three degrees of comparison, - the positive, the comparative and the superlative.