comparative

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In grammar, the comparative is the form of an adjective or adverb which denotes the degree or grade by which a person, thing, or other entity has a property or quality greater or less in extent than that of another, and is used in this context with a subordinating conjunction, such as than, as...as, etc.^[1] If three or more items are being compared, the corresponding superlative needs to be used instead.

Structure

The structure of a comparative in English consists normally of the positive form of the adjective or adverb, plus the suffix -er, or (in the case of polysyllabic words borrowed from foreign languages) the modifier more (or less/fewer) before the adjective or adverb. The form is usually completed by than and the noun which is being compared, e.g. "He is taller than his father", or "The village is less picturesque than the town nearby". Than is used as a subordinating conjunction to introduce the second element of a comparative sentence while the first element expresses the difference, as in "Our new house is larger than the old one", "There is less water in Saudi Arabia than in the United States", "There are fewer people in Canada than in California."

Some adjectives and adverbs that deal with the concept of distance use the modifiers further and furthest (or farther and farthest) instead of more, for example, "The boy ran farther away" or "The expedition was the farthest up the river ever recorded".

Two-clause sentences

For sentences with the two clauses other two-part comparative subordinating conjunctions may be used:^[2][3]

1. as...as   "The house was as large as two put together."
2. not so / not as ...as   "The coat of paint is not as [not so] fresh as it used to be."
3. the same ... as   "This car is the same size as the old one."
4. less / more ... than  "It cost me more to rent than I had hoped."
5. less / more ... than  "His house is better than mine"

Adverbs

In English, adverbs are usually formed by adding -ly to the end of an adjective. In the comparative, more (or less) is added before the adverb, as in "This sofa seats three people more comfortably than the other one." Some irregular adverbs such as fast or hard do not use more, but add an -er suffix, as the adjectives do. Thus: "My new car starts faster than the old one" or "She studies harder than her sister does."

For some one-syllable adjectives, the comparative of adjectives may be used interchangeably with the comparative of adverbs, with no change in meaning: "My new car starts more quickly than the old one" or "My new car starts quicker than the old one".

However, if the adjective has an irregular comparative, then the adverb must use it: "She writes better than I do" or "He threw the ball farther than his brother did."

Absolute comparative

A number of fixed expressions use a comparative form where no comparison is being asserted, such as higher education or younger generation.

Null comparative

The null comparative is a comparative in which the starting point for comparison is not stated. These comparisons are frequently found in advertising.

For example, in typical assertions such as "our burgers have more flavor", "our picture is sharper" or "50% more", there is no mention of what it is they are comparing to. In some cases it is easy to infer what the missing element in a null comparative is. In other cases the speaker or writer has been deliberately vague in this regard, for example "Glasgow's miles better".

Greater/lesser

Scientific classification, taxonomy and geographical categorization conventionally include the adjectives greater and lesser, when a large or small variety of an item is meant, as in the greater celandine as opposed to the lesser celandine. These adjectives may at first sight appear as a kind of null comparative, when as is usual, they are cited without their opposite counterpart. It is clear however, when reference literature is consulted that an entirely different variety of animal, scientific or geographical object is intended. Thus it may be found, for example, that the lesser panda entails a giant panda variety, and a gazetteer would establish that there are the Lesser Antilles as well as the Greater Antilles.

It is in the nature of grammatical conventions evolving over time that it is difficult to establish when they first became widely accepted, but both greater and lesser in these instances have over time become mere adjectives (or adverbial constructs), so losing their comparative connotation.

When referring to metropolitan areas, Greater indicates that adjacent areas such as suburbs are being included. Although it implies a comparison with a narrower definition that refers to a central city only, such as Greater London versus the City of London, or Greater New York versus New York City, it is not part of the "comparative" in the grammatical sense this article describes. A comparative always compares something directly with something else.

References

See also

• Comparative (disambiguation)
• Degree of comparison
• Fewer vs. less