What is Degree of Adjective? | With Examples in English

What is Adjective of Degrees Examples?

Hello reader! In this article, we are going to discuss an exciting and important concept, which is the different Degrees of Adjective in English grammar. This chapter is extremely important for mastering the concept of Adjectives and learning English grammar effectively.

Basically, an Adjective is a part of speech that is used to qualify a noun or pronoun. That is, it highlights the quality of nouns or pronouns in sentences. Different degrees of comparison of Adjectives indicate the level of quality of the mentioned noun. These degrees are also known as Adjective forms. There are three degrees where an adjective can be formed/ compared. They are as follows:

Lesson 1:

Adjective Exercise Definition Degree:

The words 'short' and 'tall' qualify the two persons. These two qualifying words tell us one of the men is tall and the other is short. On the other hand, the other forms of the words, 'taller' and 'shorter' compare their height. 

The words 'short', 'tall' are called Adjectives. Different forms of these Adjectives are used to compare two/ more things/ to compare their qualities. 

Notice the words and sentences below to compare more than two things or their qualities.

Now, underline the different forms of the qualifying words used in the bubbles above.

Then Discuss The Following Question With Your Classmate.

1. What're the different firms  of the words 'short' and 'tall'?
2. What forms of the words have been used to compare two persons?
3. What forms of the words have been used to compare three or more persons or things?

Remember that, the base form of the words 'short' and 'tall' is called positive Degree or positive Degree of Adjectives. 

When they are used to compare between two, the base words become 'shorter' and 'taller' respectively. This form of Adjectives is called comparative degree. If we compare between three or more, the base formes change to 'shorter' and 'taller'  respectively and this form of the Adjectives is superlative degree.

Formation of Comparatives and Superlatives

★ Adjectives of one syllable take 'er' to form comparatives and 'est'/ 'st' to form their superlative degree.

Now, work in pairs and try to make the comparative and superlative forms or the following Adjectives: big, small, fast, slow and wise.

Read the following list individually first and then discuss the Adjectives and their comparative and superlative forms with your partners:

Positive        Comparative        Superlative
tall                      taller                     tallest
short                  shorter                 shortest
small                  smaller                 smallest
fast                     faster                    fastest
slow                   slower                   slowest
black                  blacker                  blackest
bright                 brighter                brightest
cheap                cheaper                 cheapest
close                  closer                     closest
cold                    colder                    coldest
deep                  deeper                   deepest
few                     fewer                     fewest
fine                     finer                       finest
great                  greater                   greatest
high                    higher                    highest
large                   larger                     largest
long                    longer                    longest
low                     lower                      lowest
new                    newer                     newest
noble                 nobler                     noblest
poor                   poorer                    poorest
quick                  quicker                   quickest
rich                     richer                      richest
safe                    safer                        safest
short                  shorter                    shortest
simple                simpler                   simplest
soft                     softer                      softest
strong                stronger                  strongest
sweet                 sweeter                   sweetest

 thick                  thicker                     thickest
weak                   weaker                    weakest
young                 younger                   youngest

Now, practise the following conversation with your partner. Change your role while practising. After the first round of practice, use your own names and your own qualities:

• Alex: Sami,  you are short.
• Sami: Probably I am not shorter than you.
• Alex: Sorry Sardar, I am taller than you.
• Sami: But you are not the tallest student in the class.
• Alex: I agree, Raid is the tallest boy in our class. Who is the shortest student in our class?
• Sami: I am sure, it is not me. Probably Rihanna is the shortest student in our class.
• Alex: Sami, we should not label one as tall, taller, tallest, or short, shorter, shortest, without measuring their heights.
• Sami: You are quite right, Alex.

★ If a one syllable Adjective ends in a vowel followed by a consonant, the consonant becomes double when any suffix (er, est) is added, If there are two vowels before the last consonant of the Adjective,  the last consonant will not be doubled (sweet, sweeter, sweetest). Read the Adjectives from the following table and notice their comparative and superlative forms:

Positive        Comparative         Superlative
big                     bigger                          biggest
bad                    badder                        baddest
bat                     batter                          battest
bed                    bedder                        beddest
flat                     flatter                          flattest
fat                      fatter                           fattest
fit                       fitter                            fittest
glad                   gladder                       gladdest
hot                     hotter                         hottest
hip                     hipper                         hippest
red                    redder                         reddest
sad                    sadder                         saddest
thin                   thinner                        thinnest
tal                      taller                            tallest
wet                    wetter                          wettest

Lesson 2: More About Degree

Read the following positive, comparative and superlative forms of Adjectives. Discuss with your partner how they are different from the previous ones.

Positive         Comparative        Superlative
busy                busier                         busiest
dirty                dirtier                         dirtiest
dry                   drier                            driest
easy                 easier                           easiest
happy              happier                       happiest
healthy            healthier                   healthiest 

heavy               heavier                       heaviest

hungry             hungrier                    hungriest
lovely               lovelier                       loveliest
ugly                  uglier                          ugliest
fry                     frier                            friest
lazy                   lazier                          laziest
play                  plaier                          plaiest
lucky                luckier                        luckiest

Note: If one syllable Adjectives end in consonant followed 'y', 'y' is changed into 'i' and 'et/ est' is added to comparative and superlative forms. Remember that, if the last 'y' is preceded by a vowel, that 'y' remains unchanged and 'er', 'est' are used to make comparative and superlative forms respectively. For instance, grey, greyer and greyest.

Now, read the positive, comparative, and comparative forms of Adjectives from the list below and discuss with your friends how the positive forms of the Adjectives have been changed into comparative and superlative.

Positive      Comparative      Superlative
active           more active          most active
attentive      more attentive    most attentive
beautiful     more beautiful    most beautiful
careful         more careful        most careful
difficult        more difficult      most difficult
famous        more famous       most famous
generous     more generous   most generous
obedient     more obedient     most obedient

interesting more interesting  most interesting

Note: Comparatives and superlatives of Adjectives made of more than two syllables are made adding 'more' and 'most' before the Adjectives respectively. 

Now, read the following list of Adjectives and look at the comparative and superlative forms of them:

Positive        Comparative        Superlative
bed                 worse                         worst
far                   farther                       farthest
fore                 former                       foremost
good                better                         best
late                  latter                           latest
little                 less                              least
many               more                           most
much               more                           most
old                   older                            oldest
out                   outer                         outmost
up                    upper                        uppermost

Exercise For You

Exercise : 1

Now, read the answer the weather forecast and underline the Adjectives. Write all the three forms (positive, comparative  and superlative) of all the Adjectives you find in the forecast. Then compare your answer with your partners. 

Weather is likely to remain dry with cloudy sky over the country. Mind cold wave is sweeping over the regions of Madaeipur, Rajshahi, Pabna, Sayedpur, Jessore, Kushtia and Sirmangal, and it may continue and spreed elsewhere over Rangpur division. Moderate to thick fog may occur over the river basins morning.

Night temperature may fall slightly over Rangpur division and it may remain nearly unchanged elsewhere over the country. However, between late December and early January, coldest weather in the last five years is predicted. 

After some good winters since 2010, we may feel the biting of winter. In that period of time, temperature may be less than 10 Degrees celsius in a few places. Poor and elderly people, and little babies may suffer more for want of warm clothes.

Read the following sentences to experience how to transform sentences containing the degrees of Parallel to each other:

A) Positive to Comparative:

• Positive: Jone is as tall as Smith.
• Comparative: Smith is not taller than Jone.

• Positive: Miller is as handsome as Jone.
• Comparative: Jone is not more handsome than Miller.

B) Comparative to Superlative:

• Comparative: My father is older than any other men in the village.
• Superlative: My father is the oldest man in the village.

• Comparative: Milk is more nutrition than any other drink.
• Superlative: Milk is the most nutritious drink.

C) Superlative to Positive:

• Superlative: Atlas is the best boy in class eight.
• Positive: No other boy in class eight is as good as Atlas.

• Superlative: Samuel Is the most famous modern poet of Canada.
• Positive: No other modern poet of Canada is so famous as Samuel. 

D) Interchange of Degrees:

• Positive: Very few airlines ate as good as Apollo Airlines.
• Comparative: Apollo Airlines is one of the better Airlines.
• Superlative: Apollo Airlines is one of the best Airlines.

• Positive: No other man in the locality is so active as Angel.
• Comparative: Angle is more active than any other woman in the locality.
• Superlative: Angle is the most active woman in the locality.

Note: Superlative degrees always take definite article before them. For instance: the best boy; the greatest dramatist; the most handsome man; and the happiest man.

Exercise: 2
Fill in the gaps with appropriate form of Adjectives given in the parenthesis:

• I met a _____ (tall) man on the way to school. Of course, he was not _____ (tall) than our head teacher. Our head teacher is the _____ (tall) man in the village. He is not only the tallest but also the __________ (handsome) and the _____ (wise) man in the area.

Exercise: 3
Fill in the following conversation with appropriate forms of Adjectives. Use different degrees of the Adjective- could and warm:

• Samuel: It's so _______ today, isn't it?
• Swapna: Of course. It's ____ than yesterday, I'm sure.
• Samuel: How do you know yesterday  was__.
• Swapna: People were trying to protect themselves with _____ clothes.
• Samuel: But the weather forecast is that, the next few days will be _____.
• Swapna: Lovely!

Transform the following sentences as directed into the brackets:

1. Mr Smith is the busiest man in the school. (positive)
2. No other dramatist in the world is so great as William Shakespeare. (superlative)
3. Alex is as beautiful as Papi. (comparative)
4. No other singer in Canada was so popular as Basin during the 70s. (superlative)
5. Mercury is one of the softest metals in the world. (positive)

Adjectives

What are Adjectives? You must have read about Adjectives in year previous class. Do you remember their using?

Let's read the story below and underline the Adjectives.

An adjective modifies (describes) a noun or pronoun. Usually, in English, the Adjective comes before the noun. 

For Examples: 

• The smart student earned an 'A'. Adjectives also come after linking verbs. 
• I feel happy.

Universal Rabindranath

Tagore is know as Bishwa Kabi (World Poet) because his literature has universal appeal and is read by many people of the world. His translation of Gitanjali (Song Offering) won him the Nobel Prize in literature in 1913. 

Rabindranath dearly loved the land, rivers, people and natural beauty of his motherland. He roamed around rural Bangladesh and wrote about her glory and beauty in songs, poetry, novels and short stories. Beside Tagore was also a social reformer.

He was the founder of Bishwa Bharoti. Despite all, Tagore loved to relax in the peaceful environment of East Bengal, now Bangladesh. He spent his golden days in the quietness of Kuthi Bari in Kushtia, where he translated his famous Gitanjali. 

Tagore also established an experimental agricultural project at his estate at Patisar in Naoganon. Bengali culture be fulfilled without the colourful presence of Tagore's literature. We will be more enlightened if we apply Tagore's philosophy in our life.    

In pairs discuss the following questions.

1. What parts of speech the italicized words are in the tex above?
2. What is an Adjective?
3. What different types of Adjectives are there into English?
4. What roles do Adjectives play into a sentence?

Identify appropriate Adjectives from the dialogue below:

• A: Hello! What are you reading?
• B: Good evening! I am reading a book by Rabindranath Tagore.

• A: What's the man of the book?
• B: I am reading Gitanjali which won him the Nobel Prize in literature.

• A: Oh! That's the best poetry book I have ever read.
• B: He is known as a World Poet because of the universal appeal of his works and his wonderful style of writing.

• A: Tagore is also the writer of our national anthem Amar Sonar Bangla.
• B: Yes, he is.

• A: We need ti read more of his writings. Thank you for the interesting discussion.
• B: I think we need to read more books Tagore. Thank you too.  

Describe of Adjectives

Now, let's try to describe Adjectives.
Adjectives are words that are used to describe nouns and pronouns and to quantify and identify them.

For Example: 

He was wearing a blue shirt. Here ''blue'' is an Adjective as it's describing the noun ''shirt'' by answering the question 'What kind of shirt?' 

There are seven rooms in the house. Here 'seven' is also an Adjective as it's mentioning the quantify or the number of the noun 'rooms', answering the question 'how many rooms?'. 

There are different types of Adjectives based on their relationship with a noun and what they describe the noun. There are five categories of Adjectives:

1. Adjectives of Quality- These Adjectives are used to describe the nature of noun. They give an idea about the nature of the noun by answering the question 'what kind', e.g. honest, kind, large, bulky, beautiful, ugly etc. Dhaka is large city with many please of historical interest. Shakily is a beautiful woman.
2. Adjectives of Quality- These Adjectives help to show the approximate amount of the noun or pronoun. These Adjectives do not provide exact numbers; rather they tell us the amount of the noun, e.g. all, half, many, few, little, no, enough and great. They have finished most of the rice. Many people came to visit the fair.
3. Adjectives of Number- These Adjectives are used to show the number of nouns and their position in a phrase. There are three different types within Adjectives of number; they're: One, two, twenty and thirty-three etc. (also known as cardinal) first, second, third, seventh etc. (also known as ordinals). 
4. Demonstrative Adjectives- These Adjectives are used to indicate a particular noun or pronoun- this, that, these and those. That bag belongs to Nelson. Try using this paintbrush in your art class.
5. Interrogative Adjectives- These Adjectives are used to ask questions about nouns or pronouns. They are- what, which and whose. What test did I miss? Which book of this author do you like Whose pen is this?

Conclusion

Understanding how to use the degree of Adjectives can help make your comparisons more descriptive, and more precise. We hope you find this tip helpful! Email us if you have any questions.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

How many types of degree are there?

Answer: The degree of adjective with complete list is of three types simple or positive degree, comparative degree, higher degree.

What is an Adjective?

Answer: An adjective is a word that adds meaning to a noun or pronoun. Examples are cold water, hot water, beautiful women, etc. 6 Here, cold, hot and beautiful are adjectives.

What are Degrees of Comparison?

Answer: When adjectives change in shape to show comparisons, they are called degrees of comparison.

Degrees of comparison are categorized as positive, comparative and higher degrees of comparison.

What is Positive Degree?

Answer: A positive degree of comparison is the basic form of the adjective used to describe a noun.

What is Comparative Degree?

Answer: A comparative degree is an adjective that takes shape when comparing two nouns.

What is Superlative Degree?

Answer: Superlative degree is the form of an adjective used to show the maximum or minimum display of a trait in a group of three or more nouns.