Comparing 3 or more adjectives in English. When we compare one adjective to another adjective, we use comparative adjectives. When we compare 3 or more things in English, we superlative adjectives. For most adjectives, we can compare them by adding the +est to the sentence. We will look at this in much more detail in Level A2, but in this course we will look at the basic information.

For example:

Mice can run at 10 kilometres an hour. Dogs can run at 20 kilometres an hour.  Horses can run at 80 kilometres an hour.

• Comparative: Dogs are faster than mice. Horses are faster than dogs.
• Superlative: Horses are the fastest.

Here are some more examples:

• A whale is the biggest animal in the world..
• Jack is the tallest boy in his class.
  
• Walking is the cheapest way to travel.
  
• My grandmother is the oldest person in my family.

For longer words, we use a different rule – we add the most…. . Here are some examples:

The red car is £1000. This blue car is £15000. The black car is £50000> The blue car is the most expensive car.

Here are some more examples:

• The Prime Minister is the is the most important person in the country.
• English is the most difficult language in the world!
• She is the the most interesting person I know.

Be careful! Some adjectives are irregular and do not follow these rules! Here are some examples of irregular superlative adjectives:

• good > the best
• bad > the worst
• far > the furthest/the farthest

Here are some example sentences:

• A car is the best way to travel quickly.
• My test scores are the worst in the class!
• New Zealand is the furthest country from the UK.

To learn more about superlative adjectives, take a look at the 6 rules for using superlative adjectives in Level A2.

Ready to test your skills? Click the link in the table below to see what you know.