ESL Library Superlative Adjectives What are adjectives? Adjectives are words that describe nouns. Adjectives can give us information such as the size or age of a noun.
Adjectives can also tell us someone's opinion about a noun or describe how someone is feeling. We use superlative adjectives to compare three or more people, places, or things. Superlative adjectives tell us how one noun is different from the rest.
For example: She is the tallest girl in the group. This painting is the most beautiful of all. He is the happiest student in my class.
How are superlative adjectives formed in English? It depends on how many syllables the adjective has. For one-syllable adjectives, we add "the" and -est to the adjective.
For example, “short” becomes “the shortest. ” If the adjective ends in a consonant-vowel-consonant pattern, we double the final consonant before adding -est. For example, “big” becomes “the biggest.
” For two-syllable adjectives that end in -y, we change -y to -i and add -est. For example, “hungry” becomes “the hungriest” and “noisy” becomes “the noisiest. ” For adjectives that are two syllables or more, we use the words “the most” before the adjective.
For example, “modern” becomes “the most modern” and “expensive” becomes “the most expensive. ” Some superlative adjectives in English don't follow the usual rules. For example, the adjective "good" becomes "the best" in the superlative form.
"Bad" becomes "the worst" and "far" becomes "the farthest" or "the furthest. " The most common sentence pattern for superlative adjectives in English is: subject plus verb plus "the" plus superlative adjective plus object. Let's look at some examples of superlative adjectives in a sentence.
The blue house is the biggest house on the street. Rock music is the best kind of music. My dog is the laziest pet in my house.
The singer is the most famous member of the band. These boots are the most expensive shoes in my closet. Look at the adjective.
Say or write the superlative adjective. For example: tall the tallest Now you try! Thanks for watching!