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Definitions
An adjective is a word or set of words that modifies (i.e., describes)
a noun or pronoun. Adjectives may come before the word they modify.
Examples:
That is a cute puppy.
She likes a high school
senior.
Adjectives may also
follow the word they modify:
Examples:
That puppy looks cute.
The technology is
state-of-the-art.
An adverb is a word or set of words that modifies verbs, adjectives,
or other adverbs.
Examples:
He speaks slowly
(modifies the verb speaks)
He is especially clever
(modifies the adjective clever)
He speaks all too
slowly (modifies the adverb slowly)
An adverb answers how,
when, where, or to what extent—how often or how much (e.g., daily, completely).
Examples:
He speaks slowly
(answers the question how)
He speaks very slowly
(answers the question how slowly)
The
Difference between Adjectives and Adverbs
The Basic Rules:
Adjectives
Adjectives modify
nouns. To modify means to change in some way. For example:
·
"I ate a meal." Meal is a
noun. We don't know what kind of meal; all we know is that someone ate a meal.
·
"I ate an enormous lunch."
Lunch is a noun, and enormous is an adjective that modifies it. It tells us
what kind of meal the person ate.
Adjectives usually
answer one of a few different questions: "What kind?" or
"Which?" or "How many?" For example:
·
"The tall girl is riding a new
bike." Tall tells us which girl we're talking about. New tells us what
kind of bike we're talking about.
·
"The tough professor gave us the
final exam." Tough tells us what kind of professor we're talking about.
Final tells us which exam we're talking about.
·
"Fifteen students passed the
midterm exam; twelve students passed the final exam." Fifteen and twelve
both tell us how many students; midterm and final both tell us which exam.
So, generally speaking,
adjectives answer the following questions:
·
Which?
·
What kind of?
·
How many?
The Basic Rules:
Adverbs
Adverbs modify verbs,
adjectives, and other adverbs. (You can recognize adverbs easily because many
of them are formed by adding -ly to an adjective, though that is not always the
case.) The most common question that adverbs answer is how.
Let's look at verbs
first.
·
"She sang beautifully."
Beautifully is an adverb that modifies sang. It tells us how she sang.
·
"The cellist played
carelessly." Carelessly is an adverb that modifies played. It tells us how
the cellist played.
Adverbs also modify
adjectives and other adverbs.
·
"That woman is extremely
nice." Nice is an adjective that modifies the noun woman. Extremely is an
adverb that modifies nice; it tells us how nice she is. How nice is she? She's
extremely nice.
·
"It was a terribly hot
afternoon." Hot is an adjective that modifies the noun afternoon. Terribly
is an adverb that modifies the adjective hot. How hot is it? Terribly hot.
So, generally speaking,
adverbs answer the question how. (They can also answer the questions when,
where, and why.)
Some other rules:
Most of the time,
adjectives come before nouns. However, they come after the nouns they modify,
most often when the verb is a form of the following:
·
Be
·
Feel
·
Taste
·
Smell
·
sound
·
look
·
appear
·
seem
Some examples:
·
“The dog is black." Black is an
adjective that modifies the noun dog, but it comes after the verb. (Remember
that "is" is a form of the verb "be.")
·
"Brian seems sad." Sad is an
adjective that modifies the noun Brian.
·
"The milk smells rotten."
Rotten is an adjective that modifies the noun milk.
·
"The speaker sounds hoarse."
Hoarse is an adjective that modifies the noun speaker.
Be sure to understand
the differences between the following two examples:
"The dog smells
carefully." Here, carefully describes how the dog is smelling. We imagine
him sniffing very cautiously.
But:
"The dog smells
clean." Here, clean describes the dog itself. It's not that he's smelling
clean things or something; it's that he's had a bath and does not stink.
Contributors:Paul
Lynch, Allen Brizee.
Summary:
This worksheet
discusses the differences between adjectives and adverbs. It defines adjectives
and adverbs, shows what each can do, and offers several examples of each in
use. Click here for some examples.
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 taller than his
sister.
In the second sentence
the word ‘taller’ 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 bigger the box, the
heavier 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 hotter and
hotter day by day. [as the time passes
the temperature increases] OR The days are getting hotter and hotter.
3. SUPERLATIVE DEGREE:
A musk ox is a large
animal. An elephant is larger
than a musk ox.
The blue whale is the
largest of all animals.
The blue whale is the
largest 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’.
This comparison is
called “Superlative Degree”.
For power presentation
slides on comparisons, click here on degrees.of.comparison. For continuity,
please keep clicking after each feature in each slide.
The next point to be
considered is the forms of the adjectives and adverbs.
There are three forms –
positive form, comparative form and superlative form – and seven degrees of
comparison. That means we make seven degrees of comparison using the three
forms of almost every adjective or adverb word.
Therefore, it is important for us to discuss the forms before going any
further into this topic.
Most adjective or
adverb words in their positive form take ‘er’
to change to comparative and ‘est’ to change to superlative form. However, the words ending in ‘e’ take only
‘r’ to change to comparative form and only ‘st’ to change to superlative
form. And there are other differences
with words having different spelling.
The meaning of an
adjective or adverb in Comparative and Superlative form does not change; it is
only the form that is changed but not the meaning.
Therefore, depending on
the spelling, the adjective or adverb words are separated into groups so that
we can memorise the spellings of the words in their different forms easily.
Positive comparative
superlative
a) the words which end in ‘e’ belong to his
group and take only ‘r’ in comparative form and ‘st’ in superlative form:
brave — braver — the
bravest
large — larger — the
largest
wise — wiser — the
wisest
b) the words which end
in any letter other than ‘e’ and/or ‘y’ belong to this group and take ‘er’ in
comparative form and ‘est’ in superlative from:
sweet — sweeter — the
sweetest
tall — taller — the
tallest
young — younger — the
youngest
c) the words which end
in ‘y’ preceded by a consonant belong to this group; they lose the last letter
‘y’ and take ‘ier’ in the comparative form and ‘iest’ in superlative form:
happy — happier — the
happiest
easy — easier — the
easiest
heavy — heavier — the heaviest
The words which end in
‘y’ preceded by a vowel, however, do not change their spelling but take ‘r/er’
in
comparative form and
‘st/est’ in superlative form: e.g. gay – gayer – gayest (this word is now
considered old-fashioned in the sense of ‘happy; excited’, and in the present
day English it is used for male homosexual).
d) the words which end
in a ‘consonant’ having a ‘vowel’ before that consonant belong to this group,
and have their last consonant letter doubled before taking ‘er’ in comparative
form and ‘est’ in superlative form:
red — redder — the reddest
thin — thinner —
the thinnest
hot – hotter — the hottest
e) the words which have
‘two or more vowel sounds’ in them belong to this group, and take the word
“more” before them in comparative form and the word “ (the) most” in
superlative form:
beautiful more
beautiful the most beautiful
difficult more
difficult the most difficult
splendid more
splendid the most splendid
f) the words in this
group do not take any suffix or any other word before them, but change their
spelling and pronunciation entirely to form new words with the same meaning, of
course:
good/well — better — the
best
bad/evil/ill — worse —
the worst
little —
less/lesser* — the least
much — more — the most
many — more — the most
late — later/latter* —
the latest/last*
old — older/elder* –
the oldest/eldest*
far — farther — the farthest
fore — former —
the foremost/first*
fore — further
— the furthest
in — inner — the
inmost/inner most
up — upper — the
upmost/uppermost
out — outer/utter — the
utmost/utter most
There are some words in
the list that take more than one form in comparative and superlative form.
Each of the two words
gives a different meaning; therefore, it is best to know them well before going
any further in this topic.
Late – later, latter;
latest, last; old – elder, older;
eldest, oldest
Far – farther, further;
farthest, furthest; near – nearest,
next
Later, latter; latest,
last
Later and latest refer
to time
Latter and last refer
to position
e.g. He is later than I expected. (he has come late) I have not heard the latest news. (recent news)
The latter chapters of
the book are interesting. (order of
position)
The last chapter is
bad. (order of position)
[Suppose there are ten
chapters in a book, the “latter” chapters could be
Chapters 7,8,9 &
10; the ‘last’ chapter is chapter 10. “latter” is also used
to talk about the
second of the two people or things mentioned.]
The word ‘latter’ is,
strictly speaking, used for only two persons or things; however, it is also
used for three persons or things, as in “the latter of the three”, but in
American English.
Elder, older; eldest,
oldest
“Elder and eldest” are
used only of persons – seniority than age.
(they are used with
members of the same family.)
** “Elder” is not used
with conjunction ‘than’.
“Older and oldest” are
used of both persons and things – time (age)
e.g. John is my elder
brother. Ahmed is his eldest son.
(family relation — seniority)
Tom is older than his
sister. (of people — family relation — age)
Sarah is the oldest
girl in the class. (of people — no
family relation – age)
Town Hall is the oldest
building in our town. (of things – age)
“Tom is older than his
sister.” so “Tom is her elder
brother.” and “She is his younger
sister.”
There are, however,
some occasions where “older and oldest” are used for showing the seniority of
members of the same family. Here we have
a good example:
“Is Aunt Dee your
oldest sister, Dad?” (family
relation – seniority – but “oldest” is used) Taken from ‘BASIC SKILLS IN
ENGLISH’ Book 6, by The Editorial Staff of Mc Dougal, Littell and Company, USA
[According to the
traditional grammar rule, we are supposed to use the definite article ‘the’
before the superlative form of an adjective.
However, here we have a classic example showing the article ‘a’ before
the superlative form of an adjective by Moshe Riess:
BIRTH AND GROWTH IN
EGYPT
The first we hear of
Moses is that a man of the tribe of Levi marries a woman of the same tribe.
This may the only time that the Torah mention that both parents are of the same
tribe. In this to emphasis that despite Moses growing up as an Egyptian he is a
Hebrew? They have a son. 1From this it would appear that Moses is a firstborn,
but he has an older brother Aaron and an older sister Miriam. Thus Moses
appears to be an oldest and a youngest. The Midrash has a different explanation.
In Egypt a prophecy …
Less/lesser
These two words are the
comparative forms of the word ‘little’.
The difference is:
“less” suggests ‘amount’, and “lesser” suggests degree showing
some ‘negative’ sense
in a choice of two!
For example,
She has less money than
he (has).
Which is the lesser of
the two evils, drinking or smoking?
[Both ‘drinking
alcohol’ and ‘smoking tobacco’ are evils, but we’d like to compare and decide
which one is more harmful – ‘more negative’
— in this choice of two!]
Though there is a
debate in the educated circles as to when and where to use which word, “less or
lesser”, the learners at this basic level need not worry much about this pair,
but keep an eye on these words and note down the examples whenever they come
across these words.
Foremost/first
These two words are
synonyms, i.e. either word can be used.
However, there is some difference in their usage.
“Foremost” means ‘the
best or the most important; in a top or leading position
in a group of people or
things’; for example,
Gerald Durrell is one
of the foremost authorities on animal protection plans.
Gerald Durrell is the
first person to start a Trust (zoo) to protect the endangered species of
animals from around the world
Inmost/innermost ; upmost/uppermost;
utmost/utter most
These pairs of words
are synonyms. There are sentences where
both these words are used for the same context.
Learners at this basic level need not worry about these pairs right now.
[Visit “WORDS OFTEN
CONFUSED” under VOCABULARY for more sets of words that usually confuse us.]
Now let’s discuss each
Degree in some detail:
The positive degree of
an adjective or adverb is in its simple form.
It is used to denote or say the mere existence of some quality of what
we speak about. It is used when no
comparison is made, but just to point out that the quality is above
average. [see figure 1] ‘Tom is a tall boy.’ Here we have only one
person and one quality; and Tom’s quality of being tall is above average.
The comparative degree
of an adjective or adverb denotes more degree of the quality than the positive
degree, and is used when two persons, animals or things, or two sets/groups of
persons, animals or things are compared with one another. [see figure 4] ‘Tom is taller than his sister.’ Here we have two persons – Tom and his sister
– and the comparison is made to show that one is more in the quality of being
tall than the other. The word ‘than’ is the conjunction we must use in the
comparative degree. In fact the example
sentence in full is: Tom is taller than his sister is tall. The predicate part in the subordinate clause
(is tall) is normally not mentioned but understood. Please see item (f) under “ Some
Extraordinary Rules”.
The superlative degree
of an adjective or adverb denotes the most degree of the quality, and is used
for more than two persons, animals or things — one against the rest — one
having the highest degree of the quality in/of the rest. The Definite Article ‘the’ is used before the
adjective word in its superlative form, and the preposition ‘of’ is used with
people, animals and things and ‘in’ or ‘under’ with places and position. [see figure 7] ‘The blue whale is the largest of all the
animals in the world.’ Here we have the
blue whale and the rest of the animals, and the blue whale has the quality of
being large in the highest degree (above all others) – the supreme.
The Definite Article
‘the’ is not used with the superlative form “most” when it is used to mean
very, and when it is used to indicate the possession of a quality in a very
high degree but without any comparison:
‘This is most unfortunate.’ ‘A
most ingenious idea!’ Note that it is not the definite article ‘the’ that is
always used before the superlative form of an adjective or adverb. The demonstrative adjective or the possessive
adjective is also used depending on the context! e.g. Our football player is in his best form
this season.
The degree of equality
of an adjective or adverb is used when two things are compared with a quality
to show that they both have the same degree of that quality. It is almost like saying that they both are
the same. [see figure 2] The positive form of the adjective or adverb
word is used with the conjunction “as…as”.
For example: This building is as tall as the next one. In other words “The two buildings are the
same in height.”
The degree of
inequality of an adjective or adverb is to show that two persons, animals or
things are not the same in having a quality.
[see figure 3] The positive form
of the adjective or adverb word is used with the conjunction “so…as”. For example, The male dancer is not so
graceful as the female dancer. They are
not the same in being graceful. This
comparison is almost the same as the Comparative Degree: ‘The female dancer is more graceful than the
male dancer.’ Or ‘The male dancer is less graceful than the female dancer.’
The conjunction in the
Degree of equality is “as…as”, but in the Degree of inequality the conjunction
used is “so…as”. In spoken English the
conjunction “as…as” is accepted even in the Degree of Inequality; in written or
formal British English, however, only “so…as” is accepted. Not everyone accepts or follows this rule!
The parallel degree is
a comparison having two adjectives or adverbs – one dependent on the other
which means when one activity with one adjective or adverb increases or
decreases the other activity with another adjective or adverb also increases or
decreases. [see figure 5] For example,
The higher you climb, the more difficult you will feel. Here we have two
adjectives – high and difficult, and when the height of a hill (or a ramp)
increases, the difficulty in climbing also increases, and when the height
decreases, the difficulty also decreases.
The comparative form of
the adjectives or adverbs is used in this comparison, and the most important
point to remember is that the article “the” is used before the comparative form
of the adjective or adverb words – ‘the higher’ and ‘the more difficult’. {In the comparative degree, the comparative
form of and adjective or adverb is not used with any article! For example,
‘This hill is higher than that hill.’ you notice that the article ‘the’ is not
used before ‘higher’
So, what we understand
from these examples is that in Comparative Degree the ‘comparative form’ of an
adjective or adverb word is not used with any article in the Parallel Degree,
however, we should use the article ‘the’ before the ‘comparative form’ of the adjective or adverb
word!
Some dictionaries
categorise the article ‘the’ in this parallel degree comparison as an adverb;
some others say this use of article ‘the’ before a word in its comparative form
is idiomatic (an idiom), and yet some other dictionaries accept this as
comparative degree!
The progressive degree
of an adjective or adverb is used to show that some quality is on the increase
or decrease as the time or some other course of action passes. [see figure 6] The comparative form of the word is repeated,
using the conjunction ‘and’, without any article.
‘The patient is getting
weaker and weaker day by day.
SOME EXTRAORDINARY
RULES
There are some
exceptions to some of the rules we have already discussed, and it is necessary
for any learner to know them and apply them whenever they are needed.
*In case you find the
following rules difficult to understand right now, please leave them out for
the time being and proceed to the other items and try to understand them, and
once the other points in those items are clearly understood, then you can come
back to these rules to revise them one by one.
1. The comparative form
with ‘r’ or ‘er’ in Comparative Degree is not used when we compare two
qualities in the same person, animal or thing:
e.g. Mr. George is more fast than skillful.
George — One player;
two qualities – ‘fast’ & ‘skillful’ —
‘fast’ being more
In the example above,
we have only one person, Mr. George, and two qualities – ‘fast’ and ‘skillful’
– in him; and we are comparing those two qualities to say that he has one quality
more than the other – ‘fast’ being more than ‘skillful’. So in such cases we do not use the original
comparative form with ‘r’ or ‘er’ though the adjective has the form, but use
“more” before the word in its positive form. That is to say the adjective word
‘fast’ has “faster” for its comparative form, but we have not used it here
because we are not comparing Mr. George with anybody else, but are comparing
the two qualities Mr. George has in him!
Mr. George runs faster
than Mr. David.
two players – George
& David — one quality – fast — George has more – faster
In this sentence Mr.
George is compared with another person called Mr. David,
and the quality being
only one ‘fast’, it is used in its comparative form ‘faster’.
Here is a classic
example from the book “The Rare Birds of Southern Africa” by Dr. Phillip
Alexander Clancy, published by Winchester Press Ltd., 1985:
‘Due to its secretive
habits, (the bird is) generally considered more rare than it is.’
2. When two persons,
animals or things of the same group or kind are compared with
each other, the latter
(i.e. the second of the two) of the comparison must exclude the former (i.e.
the first of the two):
e.g. Iron is more useful than any other
metal. {Remember ‘iron’ is a metal.}
The phrase “any other”
shows that the metal ‘iron’ is separated from the other metals in this
context. Suppose the expression is put
in this way:
“Iron is more useful
than any metal.” [without the word ‘other’], it will be the same as
saying: ‘Iron is more useful than iron.’
which is meaningless because iron is
itself a metal!
Compare:
Mary is cleverer than
any boy in the class. [without ‘other’]
This expression
(sentence) is accepted because “Mary” is a girl and she is compared with boys
who are not her (gender) kind or group.
Mary is cleverer than
any girl in the class. (wrong)
This expression
(sentence) is not accepted because “Mary” is a girl and she is compared with
her own kind or group.
Therefore, this
expression should be: Mary is cleverer than any other girl in the class.
3. With the superlative
form of the adjective or adverb in the Superlative Degree,
the article ‘the’ must
be used before the form with almost all the adjectives and adverbs.
There are, however, a
couple of words which do not take the article ‘the’ before them in some special
expressions. One word ‘most’ has already
been mentioned in the explanation for the Superlative Degree; the other one is
“best” which needs to be dealt with separately.
For example, in the
expression “with best wishes” we do not use the article ‘the’ before “best”. So
it is advisable to refer to a dictionary to learn about ‘best’ and ‘most’ in
detail.
As rule number 4 is
related to the PERSONAL PRONOUNS, we need to revise this topic thoroughly. Please go to the topic “Personal Pronouns”.
However, the following
table and the short description below it may help us to take a quick look at
the PERSONAL PRONOUNS:
Person =
1st person – the person
speaking or narrating something
2nd person – the person
spoken to (the person listening to the speaker)
3rd person – the rest
of all the persons, animals and things that are talked about excluding the 1st
and the 2nd persons
Number = singular – only one person, animal or
thing; plural – more than one person,
animal or thing (two, ten, a hundred, a million, etc.)
Gender = {masculine
gender & feminine gender} (the sex of the person or animal) male or female
= boy or girl, man or woman
neuter – very young
babies of people; all the animals when spoken in general and all the things;
not man, not woman
common gender – either
man or woman; for example, A teacher is a person who teaches. “A teacher” can be a man or a woman, so it is
‘common gender’.
CASE:
nominative case =
person, animal or thing that comes before the verb and does an action in a
sentence
e.g. He is a good boy. [‘He’ is the subject in this sentence.]
objective case =
person, animal or thing that comes after the verb or preposition in a sentence
e.g. He gave her a book. [‘Her’ is the object of the verb ‘gave’.]
He gave a book to her.
[‘Her’ is the object of the preposition ‘to’]
possessive case = used
to show that something belongs somebody or something
e.g. This is my book. [‘My’ and ‘mine’ show that the book
belongs to me.]
This book is mine.
‘My’, ‘our’, ‘your’,
‘your’, ‘his’, ‘her’, ‘its’, ‘their’, ‘their’ and ‘their’ are called
POSSESSIVE ADJECTIVES because they are
always used before nouns.
“Mine”, “ours”,
“yours”, “yours”, “his”, “hers”, “its”, “theirs”, “theirs”, and “theirs” are
called POSSESSIVE PRONOUNS because they are used without nouns after them; the
nouns whose possession they show are placed somewhere else in the sentence
(expression).
Reflexive pronouns =
the action of a subject in the sentence comes back to the doer of the action
when we use these Reflexive pronouns {They are also called reciprocal pronouns,
but the function is different.}
e.g. I painted this picture myself.
[‘Myself’ in this
sentence shows that the subject ‘I’ did the action of painting the picture, not
bought or get somebody paint it for ‘me’. The action does not pass to any other
object but comes back to the subject]
They taught themselves.
[‘Themselves’ in this
sentence shows that the subject ‘they’ did not get their education from any
teacher or they did not teach anybody else, but got their education on their
own.]
4. Nominative
(subjective) Case or Accusative (objective) Case or Possessive (genitive) Case?
There is a chance of
our getting confused when using personal pronouns after ‘than’ in comparative
degree because the personal pronouns take different forms in different
cases. For instance, the First Person
Personal Pronoun in the Nominative Case is ‘I’, the same pronoun word in the
Objective case (Accusative Case) is ‘me’ and again in the Genitive Case it is
‘my/mine’. Therefore, while using them
after the conjunction ‘than’ in the comparative degree, we are bound to make
some mistakes in placing the case of the pronoun in its right form.
The following rules may
clear some of the confusion:
a) When we compare two
persons with one adjective or adverb in Comparative Degree, the PRONOUN used
after ‘than’ must be in Nominative Case (subjective case). This is considered
formal English.
e.g. He speaks more fluently than I. [‘I’ is the nominative case]
= He speaks more
fluently than I speak.
In this sentence “He
speaks more fluently than me speak.” sounds silly.
[‘me’ is the Objective
Case of the pronoun ‘I’]
Nevertheless, the
Objective Case form of the pronoun is also used by many people, including some
grammarians.
This is considered
informal or spoken English. For example: He is taller than me.
The famous grammarian,
John Silverlight, accepted the use of Objective Case of the Pronoun when the
context demands a nominative case form in his book “More Words” (page 123)
quoting a letter from Mr. Gideon Cohen Jerusalem, himself a famous person.
Therefore, we can
say: She has more money than he. [‘he’ in nominative case form]
She has more money than
he has. Or *She has more money than him.
[‘him’ in objective case form]
{Sentences of this type
are not very clear; there is bound to be some confusion}
b) But the objective
case form is the only form to be used in cases like this one:
Peter likes his books
more than her. [here ‘her’ could be a
girl he knows]
Explanation:
Peter likes his books —
80%
Peter likes her — 20% only
This sentence, if
written in full is: Peter likes his
books better than he (Peter) likes her.
Therefore, in this
expression only the objective case ‘her’ should be used.
Let’s analyse another
sentence:
James talked more about
drinks than them. [here ‘them’ could be
his friends or associates]
‘them’ is the objective
case of pronoun ‘they’
James talked about
drinks — 80%
James talked about them
— 20% only
James talked about
drinks more than they. [more than they
talked about drinks]
‘they’ is the
nominative case form
James talked about
drinks — 80%
They talked about
drinks — 20% only
{Therefore, it is to be
understood that the case of the pronoun in Comparatives changes the meaning of
the sentence.}
c) When the former (the
first of the two persons, animals or things) in Comparative Degree is in the
POSSESSIVE CASE,
the latter (the second
of the two persons, animals or things) must be in the possessive case:
For example,
1. Abe’s book is more
expensive than Jessica. [wrong]
[“Abe’s” is in the
possessive case, but ‘Jessica’ is not in possessive case]
Therefore, this
sentence should be…
Abe’s book is more expensive
than Jessica’s (book).
2. His car is bigger
than them. [wrong]
[‘His car’ is in
possessive case, but ‘them’ is in objective case]
Therefore, this
sentence should be…
His car is bigger than
their car. OR His
car is bigger than theirs.
d) When comparisons of
actions are made with GERUND or TO-INFINITIVE,
the NON-FINITE form
must be used in both the clauses of the sentence:
For example:
1. Riding a horse is
not so easy as a motor bike. [wrong]
(‘riding’ Gerundial
form of the verb ‘ride’; in the second
part –no gerundial form
Therefore, this
sentence should be…
Riding a horse is not so
easy as riding a motor bike.
2. It is nicer to go
out with someone than alone. [wrong]
(‘to go’
“to-infinitive” form of the verb ‘go’ ;
in the second part — no “to-infinitive” form
Therefore, this
sentence should be…
It is nicer to go out
with someone than to go out alone.
e) Use of the definite
article ‘the’ + comparative form:
(apart from the
PARALLEL COMPARISON)
When we want to know
which one of the two persons, animals or things is more or less in the quality
talked about, we use the ‘the’ with the comparative form of the adjective or
adverb:
For example,
Which one of these two
girls is the stronger?
However, this use of
the comparative form is considered rather literary or very formal. And in
informal or spoken English a superlative form is often used instead:the strongest?
Which of these two girls is
f) Certain comparatives
taken from Latin language have no positive or superlative degree.
They all end in “or”
but not in “er”. They are twelve in all.
Five of them lost their
comparative meaning, and are used as positive forms.
They are: exterior, interior,
ulterior, major & minor
e.g. The exterior wall
of the house is made of stone; the interior walls are of wood.
Her age is a matter of
minor importance.
I have no ulterior
motive in offering you my help.
The other seven are
used as comparative forms but are followed by “to” instead of ‘than’.
They are:
Inferior, superior, prior,
anterior, posterior, senior &
junior
e.g. A horse is inferior
to Lilly in intelligence.
Lilly’s intelligence is
superior to a horse’s.
He is junior to all his
colleagues.
All his colleagues are
senior to him.
g) Adjective words such
as square, round, perfect, eternal, universal, and unique cannot be compared;
but we often use them in comparatives, for example:
e.g. This is the most
perfect specimen I have seen. [used to
show excitement]
Interchange of Degree
of Comparison sentences:
1. Lead is the heaviest
of all metals. [superlative
degree] {‘lead’ is pronounced as “led”}
Lead is heavier than
all other metals.
or
Lead is heavier than
any other metal. [comparative degree]
No other metal is so
heavy as lead. [positive degree –
degree of inequality]
2. New York is one of
the biggest of American cities.
[superlative degree]
New York is bigger than
most other American cities. [comparative
degree]
Very few American
cities are so/as big as New York.
[positive degree – inquality]
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