Regular and Irregular Adjectives

Read the following sentences: 

• Brian is a tall boy. 
• Chris is a taller boy than Brian. 
• Henry is the tallest of all boys. 
• The three adjectives are written in three different forms. And in sentences 2 and 3, the adjectives along with describing the noun also compare them to a certain degree. 
• Thus, here we have seen the adjectives changing in forms (tall, taller, tallest) in order to show comparison and they are called the three Degrees of Comparison. 
• In sentence 1, the adjective tall simply describes the noun Brian without comparing it to anything else. Therefore, the adjective tall can be said to be in the positive degree. 
• More examples: Sweet, strange, dark, etc. 
• But in sentence 2, the adjective taller compares the noun Chris with another noun Brian. Therefore, the adjective taller can be said to be in the comparative degree. Here, the comparative degree is formed from the positive simply with the addition of the suffix ‘-er’. 
• More examples: Sweeter, stranger, darker, etc. 
• Similarly, in sentence 3, the adjective tallest compares the noun Henry with more than one noun; in this case boys collectively. Therefore, the adjective tallest can be said to be in the superlative degree. Here, the superlative degree is formed from the positive simply with the addition of the suffix ‘-est’. 
• More examples: Sweetest, strangest, darkest, etc. 

• In all the given cases, the comparative and the superlative are formed by the addition of a suffix to the positive. But this cannot be done all the time. Sometimes, the adjectives change their form to an entirely new word to represent the comparative and the superlative. Both these adjectives are seen as two types and are referred to with separate names. 
• Let us have a look at those cases. 

Regular adjectives: 

Regular adjectives are the ones which form the comparative and the superlative by adding the suffixes ‘-er’ and ‘-est’ or by adding more and most before the positive respectively. The adjectives given above are all examples of regular adjectives. 

Examples:  

• Sweet, sweeter, sweetest. 
• Weak, weaker, weakest. 
• Strong, stronger, strongest. 
• Dangerous, more dangerous, most dangerous. 
• Comfortable, more comfortable, most comfortable. 

Irregular adjectives: 

For certain adjectives, the comparative and the superlative cannot be formed from the positive. They are called irregular adjectives. 

Examples: 

• Good, better, best. 
• Bad, worse, worst. 

• Many, more, most.