Page 136 - Perfect English Grammar: The Indispensable Guide to Excellent Writing and Speaking

don’t have that native speaker’s intuition, there are some guidelines to help you
figure it out. However, to be perfect at it, you’re just going to have to let your

brain learn the natural order from your reading and listening.
1. 2. 3. 4. The order usually is: number quality or value size

5. 6. 7. 8. temperature shape color origin material Not Good: red little
wagon Good: little red wagon Not Good: a German wooden beautiful

toy Good: a beautiful German wooden toy Not Good: fat twelve

dreamy drummers Good: twelve dreamy fat drummers

11.2 Comparative and Superlative Adjectives

Comparative adjectives are used to compare two nouns (see section 8.0,

Nouns), be they things, ideas, people, or animals.

■ My bedroom is narrower than her closet.

■ The grass was greener in their yard than it was in ours.
■ My hat is bigger than your hat, but my head is smaller.

■ A naked baby belly is sweeter than a naked adult belly.

The second item being compared can be left off if it’s clear from the context.

Superlative adjectives describe a noun in an extreme way, such as being the
most or least, or the best or worst. Generally, superlatives are used to compare

an individual item to a group of a similar kind.

■ Our child is clearly the smartest preschooler.

■ Snakes make the best pets.
■ New York City is the largest city in the United States.

To make comparatives out of most adjectives, we usually add -er to the

adjective. To make superlatives, we usually add -est.

In some cases, the final vowel is changed or removed to add the suffixes. For
other adjectives, especially those of two syllables or more, we use more and