Adjectives are words used to provide more details about nouns, which are the names of people, places, animals, or things. They are not only descriptive but also help us compare how similar or different two or more nouns are.

Imagine you have two different ice cream flavours: chocolate and vanilla. Adjectives can help you describe them better. You might say, ‘Chocolate ice cream is sweet,’ and ‘Vanilla ice cream is also sweet.’ But what if you want to say which one is sweeter? That is where the degrees of comparison come in. 

Degrees of comparison allow you to express how much of a specific quality something has when compared to something else. There are three degrees of comparison1:

• Positive Degree: This is the simplest form of an adjective and is used to describe a noun without making any comparison.

For example: The ice cream is sweet.

• Comparative Degree: This degree  compares two things, to determine which one has more or less value. It is often used with the word ‘than’.

For example: Chocolate ice cream is sweeter than vanilla ice cream.

• Superlative Degree: This degree helps you compare one thing to all others in the same category. It is always preceded by the article ‘the’.

For example: Chocolate ice cream is the sweetest of all.

These sentences explain how adjectives help us describe and compare things. The positive degree describes a single thing, the comparative degree compares two things, and the superlative degree compares one thing to all others in the same category. These degrees of comparison make our language clearer and more informative.

Double Comparatives or Superlatives: Using both "more" or "most" and the "-er" or "-est" ending in the same word is incorrect. For example:  saying "more faster" or "most fastest." This is incorrect because it repeats the comparisons unnecessarily and does not sound right4.

Watch the video given below for a quick recap of how to use comparatives and superlatives in adjectives, and see examples that will help you practice!