The Degrees of Comparison in English grammar are made with the
Adjective and Adverb words to show how big or small, high or low, more
or less, many or few, etc., of the qualities, numbers and positions of
the nouns (persons, things and places) in comparison to the others
mentioned in the other part of a sentence or expression.
An
Adjective is a word which qualifies (shows how big, small, great, many, few, etc.) a noun or a pronoun is in a sentence.
An adjective can be
attributive (comes before a noun) or
predicative (comes in the predicate part):
e.g. He is a
tall man. (‘tall’ — adjective –
attributive)
This man is
tall. (‘tall’ — adjective – predicative)
An
Adverb is a word which adds to the meaning of the main verb (how it is done, when it is done, etc.) of a sentence or expression.
It normally ends with ‘ly’, but there are some adverbs that are without ‘ly’:
e.g. She ate her lunch
quickly. He speaks
clearly. They type
fast.
Kinds of comparison:
1. POSITIVE DEGREE: Tom is
tall a boy.
In this sentence the word ‘tall’ is an
adjective telling us
how Tom is. There is no other person or thing in this sentence used to
compare Tom with, but it is the general way of saying about persons,
animals and things that they have some quality (here ‘tallness’) above
average in general sense. The adjective word ‘tall’ is said to be in
the “positive form”.
This comparison is called “
positive degree” comparison.
There are two more comparisons with the ‘
positive form’ of the adjective words. They are:
(i)
Degree of Equality: This comparison is used to compare two
persons, animals or things to tell us that they are equal – having the
same quality.
There are two cats with the same height and weight, and look the same except for the colour.
Therefore we say:
The brown cat is
as beautiful as the grey cat. (= Both the cats are the same.)
The word “beautiful” is an adjective in the ‘positive form’, and with the conjunction as…as it expresses the ‘
degree of equality’.
(ii)
Degree of Inequality: This comparison is used to compare two persons, animals or things to tell us that they are not equal – not having the same quality.
The brown cat is
not so beautiful as the black & white cat. (= They are
not the same.)
The word “beautiful” is an adjective in the ‘positive form’, and with the conjunction so…as (and the negative ‘
not’) it expresses the ‘
degree of inequality’
2. COMPARATIVE DEGREE:
Tom is a tall boy. Tom is tall
er than his sister.
In the second sentence the word ‘tall
er’ is an
adjective used to compare the ‘tallness’ of these two persons – Tom and
his sister – and to tell us that Tom has more of the quality of
‘tallness’.
Therefore, an adjective word which shows the difference of quality between
twotwo groups of persons, animals or things is said to be in the ‘comparative form’. persons, animals or things, or
This comparison is called “
Comparative Degree”.
There are two more degrees of comparison with the ‘comparative form’ of an adjective. They are:
(i)
Parallel Degree: This comparison is used to show that the
qualities of two items (adjectives or adverbs) talked about in the given
sentence go parallel, i.e. if one quality (adjective or adverb)
increases, the other quality (adjective or adverb) increases, and if one
quality decreases, the other quality also decreases.
The bigg
er the box, the heav
ier it is.
(ii)
Progressive Degree: This comparison is used to show that
the quality of a thing (adjective or adverb) talked about in the given
sentence increases as the time passes, for example:
MON TUE WED THU FRI SAT SUN
25° → 27° → 30° → 33°→ 35° → 38° → 40°
It’s getting hot
ter and hot
ter day by day. [as the time passes the temperature increases] OR The days are getting hot
ter and hot
ter.
3. SUPERLATIVE DEGREE:
A musk ox is a large animal. An elephant is large
r than a musk ox.
The blue whale is
the large
st of all animals.
The blue whale is
the large
st of all animals
in the world.
In this sentence the word (
the) ‘largest’ is an adjective
used to compare the “largeness” of the blue whale and to tell us that
the blue whale has the most quality of ‘largeness’.
This comparison is used to compare one person, animal or thing with
more than two
persons, animals or things (the rest of the group of more than two),
and to say that the particular one has the highest degree of that
particular quality (here the comparison is between the blue whale
and the rest of the animals, more than two). The adjective ‘large’ is
said to be in the ‘superlative form’
sumber: http://www.weblearneng.com/the-degrees-of-comparison
