Irregular Comparative and Superlative Forms

Positive	Comparative	Superlative
Good	Better	(the) best
Bad	Worse	(the) worst
Little	Less	(the) least
Many /much	More	(the) most
Old	Older / elder	(the) oldest / eldest
Late	Later / latter	(the) latest / last
Far	Farther / further	(the) farthest / furthest
Near	nearer	(the) nearest / next

Late: later – latest (refers to time)

latter – last (refers to position)

I haven’t heard the latest news.

Ours is the last house in the street.

Old: elder – eldest (for people only in the same family)

older – oldest (for people and things)

My father is the eldest in our family.

I get on well with my elder sister.

Elder is not used with than following; we use older instead:

I’m five years older than my brother.

Near: nearest (denotes distances)

next (denotes position)

This is the nearest post-office to our house.

My uncle lives in the next house.

Comparative Constructions with the Adjectives

To compare things which are the same: as…as, the same…as, twice as…as, three times as…as	The adjective is used in the positive degree	She is as busy as a bee. Father is the same age as mother. Petrol is twice as expensive as it was a few years ago.
To compare things that are different: not as…as, not so…as	Positive degree	Italy is not so hot as Iraq. He isn’t as poor as I thought.
Than (than me / than I am)	Comparative degree	Your spelling is better than mine.
The…the	Comparative degree	The longer is the night, the shorter is the day.

Note: words that can modify a comparative form are: much, a little, a bit, slightly, far, rather, no, a lot, even, etc.

The book is much more interesting than the film.

The son is much richer than his father.

The adjective has the following syntactical characteristics:

In a sentence the adjective may be used as an attribute or as a predicative.

That was a very difficult task. (attribute)

The task was difficult. (predicative)

Substantivized adjectives

The substantivization of adjectives is a kind of conversion. Adjectives, when substantivized, lose all or part of the characteristics of the adjectives and acquire all or part of the characteristics of the noun. Adjectives in English may be fully or partially substantivized.

Fully substantivized adjectives have acquired all the characteristics of the noun: they have the plural and the possessive and are associated with the definite and indefinite articles.

Here belong the following groups of words:

1. Words denoting classes of persons, such as: a native, a relative, a savage, a progressive, a conservative, a criminal, a black, a white, etc.

2. Words denoting nationalities: an American, a German, an Italian, a Greek, etc.

3. Words denoting periodicals: daily, weekly, monthly.

Partially substantivized adjectives take only the definite article, but they do not have any other characteristics of the noun. Here belong:

1. Words denoting classes of persons who represent some feature of human character, condition or state. These adjectives are used in a generic sense: the good/bad, poor/rich, healthy/sick, etc. These words are used as plural nouns and are followed by a plural verb. If we wish to denote a single person we must add a noun: The old receive pensions. But: An old man usually receive a pension.

2. Words denoting nationalities ending in –sh and –ch: the English, the French, the Scotch, the Irish, the Welsh, the Dutch, etc.

3. Words denoting abstract notions: the good, the beautiful, the useful, the contrary, the impossible, the unknown, the opposite, etc. These words are always singular. A number of such words are used in prepositional phrases: in the negative, on the contrary, on the whole, for the better, in the main, at large, in particular, in short, all of a sudden, etc.

4. Words denoting things: goods, sweets, valuables, etc. They are always plural.