- •Contents
- •Identifying what you are talking about: determiners 50
- •3 Making a message 111
- •Indicating possibility 168
- •8 Combining messages 245
- •9 Making texts 272
- •Introduction
- •Note on Examples
- •Guide to the Use of the Grammar
- •Introduction
- •Glossary of grammatical terms
- •Cobuild Grammar Chart
- •Contents of Chapter 1
- •Identifying what you are talking about: determiners 54
- •3 Making a message 115
- •Indicating possibility 172
- •8 Combining messages 250
- •9 Making texts 276
- •Identifying people and things: nouns
- •Things which can be counted: count nouns
- •Things not usually counted: uncount nouns
- •When there is only one of something: singular nouns
- •Referring to more than one thing: plural nouns
- •Referring to groups: collective nouns
- •Referring to people and things by name: proper nouns
- •Nouns which are rarely used alone
- •Sharing the same quality: adjectives as headwords
- •Nouns referring to males or females
- •Referring to activities and processes: '-ing' nouns
- •Specifying more exactly: compound nouns
- •Referring to people and things without naming them: pronouns
- •Referring to people and things: personal pronouns
- •Mentioning possession: possessive pronouns
- •Referring back to the subject: reflexive pronouns
- •Referring to a particular person or thing: demonstrative pronouns
- •Referring to people and things in a general way: indefinite pronouns
- •Showing that two people do the same thing: reciprocal pronouns
- •Joining clauses together: relative pronouns
- •Asking questions: interrogative pronouns
- •Other pronouns
- •Identifying what you are talking about: determiners
- •The specific way: using 'the'
- •The specific way: using 'this', 'that', 'these', and 'those'
- •The specific way: using possessive determiners
- •The general way
- •The general way: using 'a' and 'an'
- •The general way: other determiners
- •Contents of Chapter 2
- •Identifying what you are talking about: determiners 54
- •3 Making a message 120
- •Indicating possibility 176
- •8 Combining messages 254
- •9 Making texts 280
- •Describing things: adjectives
- •Information focusing: adjective structures
- •Identifying qualities: qualitative adjectives
- •Identifying the class that something belongs to: classifying adjectives
- •Identifying colours: colour adjectives
- •Showing strong feelings: emphasizing adjectives
- •Making the reference more precise: postdeterminers
- •Special classes of adjectives
- •Position of adjectives in noun groups
- •Special forms: '-ing' adjectives
- •Special forms: '-ed' adjectives
- •Compound adjectives
- •Comparing things: comparatives
- •Comparing things: superlatives
- •Other ways of comparing things: saying that things are similar
- •Indicating different amounts of a quality: submodifiers
- •Indicating the degree of difference: submodifiers in comparison
- •Modifying using nouns: noun modifiers
- •Indicating possession or association: possessive structures
- •Indicating close connection: apostrophe s ('s)
- •Other structures with apostrophe s ('s)
- •Talking about quantities and amounts
- •Talking about amounts of things: quantifiers
- •Talking about amounts of things: partitives
- •Referring to an exact number of things: numbers
- •Referring to the number of things: cardinal numbers
- •Referring to things in a sequence: ordinal numbers
- •Referring to an exact part of something: fractions
- •Talking about measurements
- •Talking about age
- •Approximate amounts and measurements
- •Expanding the noun group: qualifiers
- •Nouns with prepositional phrases
- •Nouns with adjectives
- •Nouns with non-finite clauses
- •Contents of Chapter 3
- •Identifying what you are talking about: determiners 54
- •3 Making a message 124
- •Indicating possibility 181
- •8 Combining messages 258
- •9 Making texts 284
- •Indicating how many participants are involved: transitivity
- •Talking about events which involve only the subject: intransitive verbs
- •Involving someone or something other than the subject: transitive verbs
- •Verbs where the object refers back to the subject: reflexive verbs
- •Verbs with little meaning: delexical verbs
- •Verbs which can be used in both intransitive and transitive clauses
- •Verbs which can take an object or a prepositional phrase
- •Changing your focus by changing the subject: ergative verbs
- •Verbs which involve people doing the same thing to each other: reciprocal verbs
- •Verbs which can have two objects: ditransitive verbs
- •Extending or changing the meaning of a verb: phrasal verbs
- •Verbs which consist of two words: compound verbs
- •Describing and identifying things: complementation
- •Describing things: adjectives as complements of link verbs
- •Saying that one thing is another thing: noun groups as complements of link verbs
- •Commenting: 'to'-infinitive clauses after complements
- •Describing as well as talking about an action: other verbs with complements
- •Describing the object of a verb: object complements
- •Describing something in other ways: adjuncts instead of complements
- •Indicating what role something has or how it is perceived: the preposition 'as'
- •Talking about closely linked actions: using two verbs together in phase
- •Talking about two actions done by the same person: phase verbs together
- •Talking about two actions done by different people: phase verbs separated by an object
- •Contents of Chapter 4
- •Identifying what you are talking about: determiners 54
- •3 Making a message 124
- •Indicating possibility 185
- •8 Combining messages 262
- •9 Making texts 289
- •Statements, questions, orders, and suggestions
- •Making statements: the declarative mood
- •Asking questions: the interrogative mood
- •'Yes/no'-questions
- •'Wh'-questions
- •Telling someone to do something: the imperative mood
- •Other uses of moods
- •Negation Forming negative statements
- •Forming negative statements: negative affixes
- •Forming negative statements: broad negatives
- •Emphasizing the negative aspect of a statement
- •Using modals
- •The main uses of modals
- •Special features of modals
- •Referring to time
- •Indicating possibility
- •Indicating ability
- •Indicating likelihood
- •Indicating permission
- •Indicating unacceptability
- •Interacting with other people
- •Giving instructions and making requests
- •Making an offer or an invitation
- •Making suggestions
- •Stating an intention
- •Indicating unwillingness or refusal
- •Expressing a wish
- •Indicating importance
- •Introducing what you are going to say
- •Expressions used instead of modals
- •Semi-modals
- •Contents of Chapter 5
- •Identifying what you are talking about: determiners 54
- •3 Making a message 124
- •Indicating possibility 185
- •8 Combining messages 266
- •9 Making texts 293
- •The present
- •The present in general: the simple present
- •Accent on the present: the present continuous
- •Emphasizing time in the present: using adjuncts
- •The past
- •Stating a definite time in the past: the simple past
- •Accent on the past: the past continuous
- •The past in relation to the present: the present perfect
- •Events before a particular time in the past: the past perfect
- •Emphasizing time in the past: using adjuncts
- •The future
- •Indicating the future using 'will'
- •Other ways of indicating the future
- •Adjuncts with future tenses
- •Other uses of tenses
- •Vivid narrative
- •Firm plans for the future
- •Forward planning from a time in the past
- •Timing by adjuncts
- •Emphasizing the unexpected: continuing, stopping, or not happening
- •Time expressions and prepositional phrases Specific times
- •Non-specific times
- •Subordinate time clauses
- •Extended uses of time expressions
- •Frequency and duration
- •Adjuncts of frequency
- •Adjuncts of duration
- •Indicating the whole of a period
- •Indicating the start or end of a period
- •Duration expressions as modifiers
- •Contents of Chapter 6
- •Identifying what you are talking about: determiners 54
- •3 Making a message 124
- •Indicating possibility 185
- •8 Combining messages 271
- •9 Making texts 297
- •Position of adjuncts
- •Giving information about manner: adverbs
- •Adverb forms and meanings related to adjectives
- •Comparative and superlative adverbs
- •Adverbs of manner
- •Adverbs of degree
- •Giving information about place: prepositions
- •Position of prepositional phrases
- •Indicating position
- •Indicating direction
- •Prepositional phrases as qualifiers
- •Other ways of giving information about place
- •Destinations and directions
- •Noun groups referring to place: place names
- •Other uses of prepositional phrases
- •Prepositions used with verbs
- •Prepositional phrases after nouns and adjectives
- •Extended meanings of prepositions
- •Contents of Chapter 7
- •Identifying what you are talking about: determiners 54
- •3 Making a message 124
- •Indicating possibility 185
- •8 Combining messages 275
- •9 Making texts 302
- •Indicating that you are reporting: reporting verbs
- •Reporting someone's actual words: quote structures
- •Reporting in your own words: report structures
- •Reporting statements and thoughts
- •Reporting questions
- •Reporting orders, requests, advice, and intentions
- •Time reference in report structures
- •Making your reference appropriate
- •Using reporting verbs for politeness
- •Avoiding mention of the person speaking or thinking
- •Referring to the speaker and hearer
- •Other ways of indicating what is said
- •Other ways of using reported clauses
- •Contents of Chapter 8
- •Identifying what you are talking about: determiners 54
- •3 Making a message 124
- •Indicating possibility 185
- •8 Combining messages 279
- •9 Making texts 306
- •Adverbial clauses
- •Time clauses
- •Conditional clauses
- •Purpose clauses
- •Reason clauses
- •Result clauses
- •Concessive clauses
- •Place clauses
- •Clauses of manner
- •Relative clauses
- •Using relative pronouns in defining clauses
- •Using relative pronouns in non-defining clauses
- •Using relative pronouns with prepositions
- •Using 'whose'
- •Using other relative pronouns
- •Additional points about non-defining relative clauses
- •Nominal relative clauses
- •Non-finite clauses
- •Using non-defining clauses
- •Using defining clauses
- •Other structures used like non-finite clauses
- •Coordination
- •Linking clauses
- •Linking verbs
- •Linking noun groups
- •Linking adjectives and adverbs
- •Linking other word groups
- •Emphasizing coordinating conjunctions
- •Linking more than two clauses or word groups
- •Contents of Chapter 9
- •Identifying what you are talking about: determiners 54
- •3 Making a message 124
- •Indicating possibility 185
- •8 Combining messages 279
- •9 Making texts 310
- •Referring back
- •Referring back in a specific way
- •Referring back in a general way
- •Substituting for something already mentioned: using 'so' and 'not'
- •Comparing with something already mentioned
- •Referring forward
- •Leaving out words: ellipsis
- •Ellipsis in conversation
- •Contents of Chapter 10
- •Identifying what you are talking about: determiners 54
- •3 Making a message 124
- •Indicating possibility 185
- •8 Combining messages 279
- •9 Making texts 310
- •Focusing on the thing affected: the passive voice
- •Selecting focus: cleft sentences
- •Taking the focus off the subject: using impersonal 'it'
- •Describing a place or situation
- •Talking about the weather and the time
- •Commenting on an action, activity, or experience
- •Commenting on a fact that you are about to mention
- •Introducing something new: 'there' as subject
- •Focusing on clauses or clause elements using adjuncts Commenting on your statement: sentence adjuncts
- •Indicating your attitude to what you are saying
- •Stating your field of reference
- •Showing connections: linking adjuncts
- •Indicating a change in a conversation
- •Emphasizing
- •Indicating the most relevant thing: focusing adverbs
- •Other information structures Putting something first: fronting
- •Introducing your statement: prefacing structures
- •Doing by saying: performative verbs
- •Exclamations
- •Making a statement into a question: question tags
- •Addressing people: vocatives
- •Contents of the Reference Section
- •Identifying what you are talking about: determiners 54
- •3 Making a message 124
- •Indicating possibility 185
- •8 Combining messages 279
- •9 Making texts 310
- •Forming plurals of count nouns
- •Forming comparative and superlative adjectives
- •The spelling and pronunciation of possessives
- •Numbers
- •Cardinal numbers
- •Ordinal numbers
- •Fractions and percentages
- •Verb forms and the formation of verb groups
- •Finite verb groups and the formation of tenses
- •Non-finite verb groups: infinitives and participles
- •Forming adverbs
- •Forming comparative and superlative adverbs
- •Indirect object
- •Inversion
- •Verbal nouns
Forming comparative and superlative adjectives
R20 Information on how to use the comparatives and superlatives of adjectives is given in Chapter 2 (2.108 to 2.127).
R21 The comparative of an adjective is formed either by adding 'er' to the end of the normal form of the adjective, or by putting 'more' in front of it. The superlative is formed by adding 'est' to the end of the adjective, or by putting 'most' in front of it.
The choice between adding 'er' and 'est' or using 'more' and 'most' usually depends on the number of syllables in the adjective.
Superlatives are usually preceded by 'the'.
R22 With one-syllable adjectives, you usually add 'er' and 'est' to the end of the normal form of the adjective.
tall => taller => the tallest
quick => quicker => the quickest
Here is a list of common one-syllable adjectives which form their comparatives and superlatives usually, or always, by adding 'er' and 'est'.
big bright broad cheap clean clear close cold cool cross dark deep dry |
dull fair fast fat fine firm flat fresh full great hard high hot |
large late light long loose loud low new nice old pale plain poor |
proud quick rare rich rough sad safe sharp short sick slow small soft |
strong sweet tall thick thin tight tough warm weak wet wide wild young |
______
Note that when 'er' and 'est' are added to some adjectives, a spelling change needs to be made.
The patterns of spelling change in forming comparatives and superlatives from adjectives are explained in paragraph R27.
R23 You also add 'er' and 'est' with two-syllable adjectives ending in 'y', such as 'angry', 'dirty', and 'silly'.
happy => happier => the happiest
easy => easier => the easiest
Note that there is a spelling change here, which is explained in paragraph R27.
Here is a list of common two-syllable adjectives ending in 'y' whose comparatives and superlatives are formed like this:
angry busy dirty |
easy friendly funny |
happy heavy likely |
lovely lucky pretty |
silly steady tiny |
R24 Other two-syllable adjectives usually have comparatives and superlatives formed with 'more' and 'most'.
careful => more careful => the most careful
famous => more famous => the most famous
Note, however, that 'clever' and 'quiet' have comparatives and superlatives formed by adding 'er' and 'est'.
R25 Some two-syllable adjectives have comparatives and superlatives with either the endings 'her' and 'est', or 'more' and 'most'.
I can think of many pleasanter subjects.
It was more pleasant here than in the lecture room.
Exposure to sunlight is one of the commonest causes of cancer.
...five hundred of the most common word's.
Here is a list of common adjectives which can have either kind of comparative and superlative:
common cruel gentle |
handsome likely mature |
narrow obscure pleasant |
polite remote shallow |
simple stupid subtle |
R26 Adjectives which have three or more syllables usually have comparatives and superlatives with 'more' and 'most'.
dangerous => more dangerous => the most dangerous
ridiculous => more ridiculous => the most ridiculous
However, some three-syllable adjectives are formed by adding 'un' to the beginning of other adjectives. For example, 'unhappy' is related to 'happy' and 'unlucky' to 'lucky'.
These three-syllable adjectives have comparatives and superlatives formed either by adding 'er' and 'est' or by using 'more' and 'most'.
He felt crosser and unhappier than ever.
R27 When you add 'er or 'est' to an adjective, you sometimes need to make another change to the end of the adjective as well.
If a one-syllable adjective ends in a single vowel letter followed by a single consonant letter, you double the consonant letter when adding 'er' of 'est'.
big => bigger => the biggest
hot => hotter => the hottest
However, you do not do this with two-syllable adjectives.
common => commoner => the commonest
stupid => stupider => the stupidest
If an adjective ends in 'e', you remove the 'e' when adding 'er' or 'est'.
wide => wider => the widest
simple => simpler => the simplest
Note that with adjectives ending in 'le', the comparative and superlative have two syllables, not three. For example, 'simpler' (from 'simple' /sɪmpəl/) is pronounced /sɪmplə/.
If an adjective ends in a consonant letter followed by 'y', you replace the 'y' with 'i' when adding 'er' or 'est'.
dry => drier => the driest
angry => angrier => the angriest
unhappy => unhappier => the unhappiest
Note that with 'shy', 'sly', and 'spry', you add 'er' and 'est' in the ordinary way.
R28 'Good and 'bad' have special comparatives and superlatives which are not formed by adding 'er' and 'est' or by using 'more' and 'most'.
'Good' has the comparative 'better' and the superlative 'the best'.
There might be better ways of doing it.
This is the best museum we've visited yet.
'Bad' has the comparative 'worse' and the superlative 'the worst'.
Things are worse than they used to be.
The airstrip there was the worst place in the world.
Note that 'ill' does not have a comparative form and so 'worse' is used instead.
Each day Kunta felt a little worse.
R29 The adjective 'old' has regular comparative and superlative forms but, in addition, it has the forms 'elder' and 'the eldest'. These forms are used only to talk about people, usually relatives.
...the death of his two elder sons in the First World War.
Bill's eldest boy is a doctor.
Note that unlike 'older', 'elder' never has 'than' after it.
R30 There is no comparative or superlative of 'little' in standard English, although children sometimes say 'littler' and 'the littlest'. When you want to make a comparison, you use 'smaller' and 'the smallest'.
R31 The comparatives and superlatives of compound adjectives are usually formed putting 'more' and 'most' in front of the adjective.
self-effacing => more self-effacing => the most self-effacing
nerve-racking => more nerve-racking => the most nerve-racking
Some compound adjectives have adjectives as their first part. Comparatives and superlatives of these compounds are sometimes formed using the comparative and superlative of the adjective.
good-looking => better-looking => the best-looking
Similarly, some compound adjectives have adverbs as their first part. Their comparatives and superlatives are sometimes formed using the comparative and superlative of the adverb.
well-paid => better-paid => the best-paid
badly-planned => worse -planned => the worst-planned
The comparatives and superlatives of adverbs are explained in paragraphs R150 to R154.