Online Reporter
COMPARING one thing to another will be useful in your essays but forming comparatives incorrectly leads to all sorts of problems. Read these columns carefully and learn how to do it properly. Adding “er”and “than” can form a comparative.
For short words like tall, short and big, take the adjective and add the suffix “-er” to the end, followed by “than”. An adjective describes a noun, big +-er >bigger > South Africa is bigger than Zimbabwe. To make the adjective “big” a comparative you add the suffix “er”.
Happy + -er >happier – Peter is happier than James. Add the suffix “er” to the adjective “happy”. “Happy” ends in a consonant and a “y” so you need to change the “y” to an “i” when adding the suffix. Add ‘“than” to complete the comparison.
Use “more” and “than” to complete longer words: When comparing longer words you do not need to add “-er”.
If you want to say the first thing is better or bigger than the second you use “more” and “than”: Noma is more popular than Rita. “More” goes in front of the adjective “popular”. “Than” goes after the adjective. Adding “-er” to the adjective gives you a word that does not exist.
If you want to say the first thing is not as good, you use “less” instead of “more”: Jack is less popular than Ralph. Ethiopia is less developed than Kenya. Put less in front of the adjective instead of “more”. You also need to remember to add “than” to make sense. If you want to say two things at the same time, you replace both words with “as” instead.
Sam is as popular as Eric. Gweru is as expensive as Bulawayo. Put “as” before and after the adjective. Comparatives are quite straightforward. . . Just do not forget to add “than” before the second thing you are comparing when you are using “more” or “less” to compare two things. Without “than” you might not even be writing a proper sentence.
Learn these common forms for “best” and “worst”Sometimes comparing things is not enough – you need to say, which is the best or worst.
Read the following comparatives under the following titles: Adjective-comparative and superlative-good better best; bad, worse worst; much/many more most; little less least and few fewer and fewest.
The words in the right-hand are superlatives, which are “most” words – you do not need any other comparatives, but you need to use “the”. With the words in the middle, you need to put “than” after them, otherwise the sentence will not make any sense. The Crucible’ is better than “1984”.
Be careful not to confuse comparatives and superlatives – you cannot say things like “more better” or
“worst than”.- You can use “-est” to say something is the most.
One way of saying something has the most of a characteristic is to put “-est” on the end of an adjective.
You can only use this method for short adjectives. You treat “-est” just like any other suffix – it follows the same spelling rules..
Example: Those are the greyest clouds. “Greyest means “the most grey”. “They” stays the same because the letter before the “y” is a vowel “-e”. The heaviest rainfall is in the Northern provinces. “Heaviest” means the most heavy. The “y” in heavy changes to “I” as you are adding a suffix that is not “-ing”.
Ralph is the bravest boy on the island. Because the root word “brave” ends in “e” and the first letter of the suffix is a vowel, you drop the “e” when you add “-est” Superlatives for longer words need “most”.
Longer words (three syllables or more) do not sound right if you add “-est”. You need to use most instead. Tshaka was South Africa’s powerfullest king. This is wrong.
But you can say, Tshaka was South Africa’s most powerful king. You just use “most”. There is no such word as “powerfullest”. If you want to say something has the smallest amount of something, use “least” instead of “most”.
Never use “most” and “-est” together. You can either use “most” or add “-est” on the end of your adjective – do not use them both together.
The most earliest version of Romeo and Juliet was printed in 1597. This is incorrect. You do not need most here. Earliest already means most early. You have to choose between “most” and “-est”. . . .
Commonly misused words: It is easy to misuse certain words. With words that sound the same, if you use the wrong word you can also make the meaning of your writing unclear. It is important to get them right because the examiner will be looking for them.
“Maybe’ is an adverb but “may be” is a verb phrase. Adverbs give more information about a verb.
For example, “He sang quietly” or “They ran quickly”. Will start from next week.
For views link with [email protected] or sms to 0772113207
