Comparative Adjectives Part 1

Comparative adjectives

Look at these examples to see how we use comparative adjectives.

The city is more interesting than the countryside.
This house is older than my house.
She's better at cooking now than before.

Grammar explanation

We use comparative adjectives to compare two things or show change. The comparative form depends on the number of syllables in the adjective.

Adjectives with one syllable

To make comparative forms with one-syllable adjectives, we usually add -er:

old → older
clean → cleaner
slow → slower

If an adjective ends in -e, we add -r:

safe → safer
nice → nicer

If an adjective ends in a vowel and a consonant, we usually double the consonant:

big → bigger
hot → hotter