Indo-European languages
English has two grammatical constructions for expressing comparison: a morphological one formed using the suffixes -er (the "comparative") and -est (the "superlative"), with some irregular forms, and a syntactic one using the adverbs "more", "most", "less" and "least".
As a general rule, words of one syllable require the suffix (except for a few words such as fun, real, right, wrong), while words of three or more syllables require "more" or "most". This leaves words of two syllables—these are idiomatic, some requiring the morphological construction, some requiring the syntactic and some able to use either (e.g., polite can use politer or more polite), with different frequencies according to context.
The suffixes -er (the "comparative") and -est (the "superlative") are of Germanic origin and are cognate with the Latin suffixes -ior and -issimus and Ancient Greek -ῑ́ων : -īōn and -ῐστος : -istos. They are added to most monosyllabic adjectives and a number of two-syllable adjectives of Anglo-Saxon origin, notably those ending in -y (> Old Eng. -iċ) and -ly (> Old. Eng. -līċ), as well as borrowed words fully assimilated into English vocabulary. Usually the words taking these inflections have fewer than three syllables.
This system also contains a number of irregular forms, some of which, like "good", "better", and "best", contain suppletive forms. These irregular forms include:
In syntactic construction, inserting the words "more" or "most" before an adjective or adverb modifies the resulting phrase to express a relative (specifically, greater) degree of that property. Similarly, inserting the diminutives "less" or "least" before an adjective or adverb expresses a lesser degree.
This system is most commonly used with words not of Anglo-Saxon origin – most often those of French, Latin, or Greek origin. This includes adverbs formed with the suffix -ly (e.g., more beautifully) and such words used as adjectives if they would take -ly as adverbs (e.g. most beautiful). It also tends to include longer, technical, or infrequent words. Some more examples:
The meanings of some adjectives (the ungradable or absolute type) are not exhibitable in degrees, making comparative constructions of them inappropriate. Some qualities are either present or absent, applicable or not applicable, such as a rock being cretaceous vs. igneous, so it appears illogical to call anything "very cretaceous", or to try to characterize something as "more igneous" than something else.
Some grammarians object to the use of the superlative or comparative with words such as full, complete, unique, or empty, which by definition already denote a totality, an absence, or an absolute. However, such words are routinely and frequently qualified in contemporary speech and writing. This type of usage conveys more of a figurative than a literal meaning, because in a strictly literal sense, something cannot be more or less unique or empty to a greater or lesser degree.
Many prescriptive grammars and style guides include adjectives for inherently superlative qualities to be non-gradable. Thus, they reject expressions such as more perfect, most unique, and most parallel as illogical pleonasms: after all, if something is unique, it is one of a kind, so nothing can be "very unique", or "more unique" than something else.
Other style guides argue that terms like perfect and parallel never apply exactly to things in real life, so they are commonly used to mean nearly perfect, nearly parallel, and so on; in this sense, more perfect (i.e., more nearly perfect, closer to perfect) and more parallel (i.e., more nearly parallel, closer to parallel) are meaningful.
If an adjective has two comparative markers, it is known as a double comparative (e.g. more louder, worser). The use of double comparatives is generally associated with Appalachian English and African American Vernacular English, though they were common in Early Modern English and were used by Shakespeare.
"The Duke of Milan / and his more braver daughter could controul thee."—Shakespeare, The Tempest
In recent times, such constructions have been used humorously, or to convey a sense of erudition, in addition to their original purpose of emphasis.
"The female of the species is more deadlier than the male"—Space, "Female of the Species", 1996
"World must prepare for disease more deadlier than Covid, WHO chief warns", The Independent, describing remarks by World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, 2023
The adjective near may be found in the superlative with omission of the preposition to after it, as in Find the restaurant nearest your house (instead of Find the restaurant nearest to your house). Joan Maling (1983) shows that near is best analysed as an adjective with which the use of to is optional, rather than a preposition.
In most Balto-Slavic languages (such as Czech, Polish, Lithuanian and Latvian), the comparative and superlative forms are also declinable adjectives.
In Bulgarian, comparative and superlative forms are formed with the clitics по- (more) and най- (most):
голям (big)
по-голям (bigger)
най-голям (biggest)
In Czech, Polish, Slovak, Ukrainian, Belarusian, Serbo-Croatian and Slovene, the comparative is formed from the base form of an adjective with a suffix and superlative is formed with a circumfix (equivalent to adding a prefix to the comparative).
mladý / młody / mladý / молодий / малады / mlad / mlad (young)
mladší / młodszy / mladší / молодший / малодшы / mlađi / mlajši (younger)
nejmladší / najmłodszy / najmladší / наймолодший / наймалодшы / najmlađi / najmlajši (youngest)
In Russian, comparative and superlative forms are formed with a suffix or with the words более (more) and самый (most):
добрый (kind)
добрее/более добрый (kinder)
добрейший/самый добрый (kindest)
In contrast to English, the relative and the superlative are joined into the same degree (the superlative), which can be of two kinds: comparative (e.g. "more beautiful") and absolute (e.g. "the most beautiful").
French: The superlative is created from the comparative by inserting the definitive article (la, le, or les), or the possessive article (mon, ton, son, etc.), before "plus" or "moins" and the adjective determining the noun. For instance: Elle est la plus belle femme → (she is the most beautiful woman); Cette ville est la moins chère de France → (this town is the least expensive in France); C'est sa plus belle robe → (It is her most beautiful dress). It can also be created with the suffix "-issime" but only with certain words, for example: "C'est un homme richissime" → (That is the most rich man). Its use is rare and often ironic.
Spanish: The comparative superlative, like in French, has the definite article (such as el, la, los, or las), or the possessive article ("tus," "nuestra," "su," etc.), followed by the comparative ("más" or "menos"), so that "el meñique es el dedo más pequeño" or "el meñique es el más pequeño de los dedos" both mean "the pinky is the smallest finger." Another example would be, “Suzanne es la más graciosa de la clase” (“Suzanne is the funniest in the class”), where the comparison is made within a specific group of people. In Spanish this is often referred to as “relative superlative,” because it compares one item within the group.
Irregular comparatives are "mejor" for "bueno" and "peor" for "malo," which can be used as comparative superlatives also by adding the definite article or possessive article, and when added they express the highest or lowest quality within a group so that "nuestro peor error fue casarnos" is "our worst mistake was to get married."
The article must agree with the gender and number for the noun it modifies. For example, el más alto, la más alta, los más altos, y las más altas.
The absolute superlative is normally formed by modifying the adjective by adding -ísimo, -ísima, -ísimos or -ísimas, depending on the gender or number. Thus, "¡Los chihuahuas son perros pequeñísimos!" is "Chihuahuas are such tiny dogs!" Some irregular superlatives are "máximo" for "grande," "pésimo" for "malo," "ínfimo" for "bajo," "óptimo" for "bueno," "acérrimo" for "acre," "paupérrimo" for "pobre," "celebérrimo" for "célebre."
There is a difference between comparative superlative and absolute superlative: Ella es la más bella → (she is the most beautiful); Ella es bellísima → (she is extremely beautiful).
Portuguese and Italian distinguish comparative superlative (superlativo relativo) and absolute superlative (superlativo absoluto/assoluto).
For the comparative superlative they use the words "mais" and "più" between the article and the adjective, like "most" in English.
For the absolute superlative they either use "muito"/"molto" and the adjective or modify the adjective by taking away the final vowel and adding issimo (singular masculine), issima (singular feminine), íssimos/issimi (plural masculine), or íssimas/issime (plural feminine). For example:
Aquele avião é velocíssimo/Quell'aeroplano è velocissimo → That airplane is very fast
There are some irregular forms for some words ending in "-re" and "-le" (deriving from Latin words ending in "-er" and "-ilis") that have a superlative form similar to the Latin one. In the first case words lose the ending "-re" and they gain the endings errimo (singular masculine), errima (singular feminine), érrimos/errimi (plural masculine), or érrimas/errime (plural feminine); in the second case words lose the "-l"/"-le" ending and gain ílimo/illimo (singular masculine), ílima/illima (singular feminine), ílimos/illimi (plural masculine), or ílimas/illime (plural feminine), the irregular form for words ending in "-l"/"-le" is somehow rare and, in Italian but not in Portuguese, it exists only in the archaic or literary language. For example:
"Acre" (acer in Latin) which means acrid, becomes "acérrimo"/"acerrimo" ("acerrimus" in Latin). "Magro" ("thin" in Portuguese) becomes "magérrimo."
Italian simile (similis in Latin) which means "similar," becomes (in ancient Italian) "simillimo" ("simillimus" in Latin).
Portuguese difícil ("hard/difficult") and fácil (facile).
Romanian, similar to Portuguese and Italian, distinguishes comparative and absolute superlatives. The comparative uses the word "mai" before the adjective, which operates like "more" or "-er" in English. For example: luminos → bright, mai luminos → brighter. To weaken the adjective, the word "puțin" (little) is added between "mai" and the adjective, for example mai puțin luminos → less bright. For absolute superlatives, the gender-dependent determinant "cel" precedes "mai," inflected as "cel" for masculine and neuter singular, "cei" for masculine plural, "cea" for feminine singular, and "cele" for feminine and neuter plural. For example: cea mai luminoasă stea → the brightest star; cele mai frumoase fete → the most beautiful girls; cel mai mic morcov → the smallest carrot.
Hindi-Urdu (Hindustani)ː When comparing two quantities makes use of the instrumental case-marker se (से سے) and the noun or pronoun takes the oblique case. Words like aur (और اور) "more, even more", zyādā (ज़्यादा زیادہ) "more" and kam (कम کم) "less" are added for relative comparisons. When equivalence is to be shown, the personal pronouns take the oblique case and add the genitive case-marker kā (का کا) while the nouns just take in the oblique case form and optionally add the genitive case-marker. The word zyādā (ज़्यादा زیادہ) "more" is optional, while kam (कम کم) "less" is required, so that in the absence of either "more" will be inferred.
Superlatives are made through comparisons with sab ("all") with the instrumental postposition se as the suffix. Comparisons using "least" are rare; it is more common to use an antonym.
In Sanskritised and Persianised registers of Hindustani, comparative and superlative adjectival forms using suffixes derived from those languages can be found.
Scottish Gaelic: When comparing one entity to another in the present or the future tense, the adjective is changed by adding an e to the end and i before the final consonant(s) if the final vowel is broad. Then, the adjective is preceded by "nas" to say "more," and as to say "most." (The word na is used to mean than.) Adjectives that begin with f are lenited. and as use different syntax constructions. For example:
Tha mi nas àirde na mo pheathraichean. → I am taller than my sisters.
Is mi as àirde. → I am the tallest.
As in English, some forms are irregular, i.e. nas fheàrr (better), nas miosa (worse), etc.
In other tenses, nas is replaced by na bu and as by a bu, both of which lenite the adjective if possible. If the adjective begins with a vowel or an f followed by a vowel, the word bu is reduced to b'. For example:
Bha mi na b' àirde na mo pheathraichean. → I was taller than my sisters.
B' e mi a b' àirde. → I was the tallest.
Welsh is similar to English in many respects. The ending -af is added onto regular adjectives in a similar manner to the English -est, and with (most) long words mwyaf precedes it, as in the English most. Also, many of the most common adjectives are irregular. Unlike English, however, when comparing just two things, the superlative must be used, e.g. of two people - John ydy'r talaf (John is the tallest).
In Welsh, the equative is denoted by inflection in more formal registers, with -ed being affixed to the adjective, usually preceded, but not obligatorily, by cyn (meaning 'as'). For example: Mae Siôn cyn daled â fi (Siôn is as tall as me). Irregular adjectives have specific equative forms, such as da (‘good’): cystal = 'as good as'.
