Comparatives and Superlatives of Adjectives

What I Am Getting At
     The other day, I was complaining to my mom and sister about one of my classes and the quiz questions I was having to answer.  Somewhere in this complain-fest, this happened:

                             Me: "I swear, the questions keep getting stupider and stupider!" 

                             My sister: "'Stupider'? This coming from the English major?"

                             Me: "Uh...yes, stupider."

                             My mom: "Shouldn't it be 'more stupid'?"

                             Me: "Uhh..."

I honestly had no idea how to answer this question! So, for your benefit (and my own!) this post is all about the comparatives and superlatives of adjectives (: Hopefully by the end we will all know which is the correct form: "stupider" or "more stupid"!

<image from Those English Skills blog>

Definitions

     According to the Oxford English Dictionary (online): 

• a comparative develops a relation in quality between to things, though not the highest quality, 

• a superlative deals with the highest quality of comparison between two things.  

While these definitions are pretty vague, GrammarGirl has come to the rescue! In the article "Comparatives Vs. Superlatives", she elaborates enough for us to get the bigger picture. Here are the definitions/explanations she gives:  

• "When you compare two items, you’re using what’s called a comparative, so you use “more” before the adjective or the suffix “-er” on the end of it. You can remember that comparatives are for two thing because “comparative” has the sound “pair” in it and a pair is always two things. It's not spelled like “pair” but it sounds like pair."

• "When you compare three or more items, you’re using a superlative, so you use “most” or the suffix “-est.” You can remember that superlatives are for more than two things because “superlative” has the word “super” in it and when you want a whole bunch of something, you supersize it."

Make more sense? I sure thought so! But, there is still the problem of how we make the correct form of the comparative and superlative. There are a few little rules--or rather guidelines since the English language is ALWAYS breaking its own rules--to help us along the way.

<image from the Study English Blog>

<image from the Study English Blog>

5 Guidelines (from Oxford Dictionary)

1. Adjectives that have one syllable: add -er for the comparative and -est for the superlative
2. Adjectives that have one syllable and end in "e": add -r for the comparative and -st for the superlative
3. Adjectives that have two syllables: the form depends on the adjective. Some you can simply add -r/-er for the comparative and -st/-est for the superlative, while for others you will need to add 'more' or 'most', respectively.  To make things even more confusing, there are also words that can be formed both ways.
4. Adjectives that have three or more syllables: add 'more' for the comparative and 'more' for the superlative.
5. Adjectives that change their spelling: the form here depends on the adjective

• one-syllable ending in a single consonant: double the consonant and add -er for the comparative and -est for the superlative
• ending in y: change the 'y' to 'i' and add -er for the comparative and -est for the superlative
• irregulars: these are words that you simply have to learn and memorize

Application

     I cannot give you an example of every possible adjective, but I can share a few.

For starters, here is a short list from a teacher's resource website called K12 Reader:

Regular, Comparative, Superlative

sweet, sweeter, sweetest

angry, angrier, angriest

bright, brighter, brightest

calm, calmer, calmest

cold, colder, coldest

cool, cooler, coolest

curly, curlier, curliest

early, earlier, earliest

rich, richer, richest

lovely, lovelier, loveliest

smart, smarter, smartest

simple, simpler, simplest

famous, more famous, most famous

immense, more immense, most immense

long, longer, longest

perfect, more perfect, most perfect

quick, quicker, quickest

thin, thinner, thinnest

Here is a list of comparative and superlative adjectives that have irregular forms (from YourDictionary.com):

bad, worse, worst

good, better, best

far, farther, farthest

late, latter, last (order)

little, less, least

much, more, most

some, more, most

many, more, most

     In the end, if you are really having difficulty figuring out the correct form, look it up; many resources are available to us for this purpose (though I recommend a dictionary just to be safe).

<image from slideshare.net>

To answer my original dilemma regarding the comparative of 'stupid', the correct form according to Oxford Dictionary and Dictionary.com is "stupider" (and the superlative is "stupidest").  

Hope this information is helpful! Let me know what you think,

Amanda