DEGREES OF COMPARISON | ENGLISH GRAMMAR | PART-2 | DEGREES OF COMPARISON RULES | LEARN HUTT

DEGREES OF COMPARISON

The word “degree” means level. There are three ways of comparison.

         
       1) Positive degree

           2) Comparative degree

           3) Superlative degree

Degrees of comparison

Each degree contains three concepts.

Positive degree	Comparative degree	Superlative degree
Tall	Taller	Tallest
Good	Better	Best
Beautiful	More beautiful	Most beautiful

I) Rules to change Superlative degree into positive degree:

	Superlative degree with ‘no negative word’	Superlative degree with ‘one of the’	Superlative degree with ‘a negative word’
Examples of Superlative degree	Ram is the tallest student in the class	Ram is one of the tallest students in the class	Ram is not the tallest student in the class
Syntax	No other + last part of sentence + verb + as/so + positive form + as + subject	Very few/few other + last part + verb + as/so + positive form + as + subject	Some other + last part but in plural + verb + atleast + as + positive form + as + subject
Superlative into positive degree	No other student in the class is as/so tall as Ram	Very few students in the class are as/so tall as Ram	Some other students in the class are at least as tall as Ram

Examples:

       a) Superlative degree: Billgates is the richest person in the world.

           Positive degree: No other person in the world is as/so rich as Billgates.

       

       b) Superlative degree: The rose is one of the most beautiful flowers.

           Positive degree: Very few flowers are as/so beautiful as the Rose.

       c) Superlative degree: Gowthami is not the tallest student in the class.

      Positive degree: Some other students in the class are at least as tall as Gowthami.

II) Rules to change Superlative degree into comparative degree:

	Superlative degree with ‘no negative word’	Superlative degree with ‘one of the’	Superlative degree with ‘a negative word’
Examples of Superlative degree	Kohli is the greatest cicketer in the world	Kohli is one of the greatest cricketers in the world	Kohli is not the greatest cricketer in the world
Syntex	Subject + verb + comparative form + than any other/than all other + last part/last part in plural	Subject + verb + comparative form + than many other/than most other + last part	Subject + verb + not + comparative form + than some other + last part in plural
Superlative into comparative degree	i) Kohli is greater than any other cricketer in the world ii) Kohli is greater than all other cricketers in the world	i) Kohli is greater than many other cricketers in the world ii) Kohli is greater than most other cricketers in the world	Kohli is not greater than some other cricketers in the world

Examples:

     

       a) Superlative degree: That is the oldest tree in the garden.
       Comparative degree: That is older than any other tree in the garden.

        b) Superlative degree: Kali is one of the strongest boxers in the world.
        Comparative degree: Kali is stronger than many other boxers in the world.

        c) Superlative degree: Ram is not the cleverest student in the class.
        Comparative degree: Ram is not cleverer than some other students in the class.

III) Rules to change comparative degree into positive degree:

Syntax:

       1) If comparative degree is in positive:

Object + verb + not + as/so + positive form + as + subject

       2) If comparative degree is in negative:

Object + verb + (atleast) + as + positive form + as + subject

Examples:

       a) Comparative degree: Kohli is greater than Lara.
       Positive degree: Lara is not as/so great as Kohli.

       b) Comparative degree: Mumbai is bigger than Hyderabad.
       Positive degree: Hyderabad is not as/so big  as Mumbai.

       c)  Comparative degree: Prasad is not taller than  Pundari.
       Positive degree: Pundari is (atleast) as tall as Prasad.

      d) Comparative degree: Iron is more useful than Copper.
     Positive degree: Copper is not as/so useful as Iron.

Conclusion:

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