Comparative Adjectives with Examples: A Timesaver Study Guide

Comparative adjectives are used to compare two or more things. Teachers can use this guide as a reference or study tool for students in elementary up to Grade 6+. Here we'll go over them with examples of comparative adjectives and some foundational information on what adjectives are. At the end, teachers can use a checkpoint quiz as part of their digital classroom strategies and comparative adjective flashcards for homeschoolers, students, and classroom teachers.

How Do Adjectives Work?

It may be helpful to think of adjectives as helpers for nouns in their most basic sense. Just as a refresher, remember that nouns are words in English that denote people, places, or things. Adjectives can amplify nouns by adding descriptions that can make the nouns more unique or memorable. Thinking of them as descriptive helpers is probably useful for most students. However, in a technical sense, adjectives tell the reader or listener what the state the noun is in at the time. They can also describe qualities that the noun has.

Basic Adjective

A basic adjective would describe something in a concrete sense against itself, in a way. Consider these sentences.

1. Critics consider the film Citizen Kane to be an important piece of art. You can tell the state or quality of the film thanks to the adjective. In this case, Citizen Kane is the film, and it has a quality of greatness about it.
2. Weather in London is often bleak or rainy. In this example, you have two adjectives expressing a related idea slightly differently. The weather in London means that it can be rainy quite often. This rain can lead to overcast skies or a sense that the whole atmosphere of the city is rather bleak for most people.
3. My mom is a beautiful woman. In this example, the basic adjective tells us how the speaker feels about their mom, which gives us more information and helps paint a picture.

Comparative Adjectives - How to Use Them

In the previous section, you saw examples of one or two adjectives to describe different things. These are basic adjectives; they simply describe. Comparative adjectives, however, work a little differently. As the name suggests, they compare two things, but you can also use them as a way to differentiate the specific degrees of the qualities you are describing between the two nouns.

To do either of these things, you need to start with the base adjective. Once you have it, you usually add the -er suffix to the end of it.

Examples of Comparative Adjectives

1. The apple on the left is redder than the one on the right.
2. My sister is older than me.
3. The house over there is taller than the Empire State Building.
4. I think it's hotter in Peru than here.
5. The sky is bluer than the sky this morning.

Exceptions for Comparative Adjectives

Not every adjective that you can use to form a comparison is something you can form with the -er ending. In cases like these, you’ll need to add the word more prior to the use of the base adjective you will insert for a comparison.

1. The first painting I saw was more beautiful than the second painting.
2. My mom is more honest than my sister.
3. I think that Queen is more famous than the Beatles.
4. Please be more gentle with the dog than you are with me.
5. Joe’s bike is faster than Susan’s bike.

We cannot add the -er ending to the word beautiful. However, we can put another word in front of it to make it an example of a comparative adjective. Note that when you do add an extra word to transform the base adjective, you also need to add than as a way to make the comparison between item one and item two clear to the reader or listener.

Comparative Adjective Flashcards

See if you can complete the sentences on the flashcards below.

Comparative Adjective Quiz

Think you've got it? Check your understanding with this checkpoint quiz.

Are There Other Types of Adjectives?

Yes, you might come across several other types of adjectives in writing. One of them is superlative. Other adjectives you might see can include predicate adjectives, compound adjectives, descriptive adjectives, interrogative adjectives, and possessive adjectives. This short list is just a few more of the adjectives you’re sure to come across in your English reading assignments.

More Adjective Topics:

• Adjectives
• Proper Adjectives
• Superlative Adjectives
• Adjectives Order
• Adjective Gradability
• Positive Adjectives
• Adjectives That Start With N
• Adjectives That Start With M