Adjectives are one of the basic parts of speech; they modify, or describe, nouns. An adjective may also be used to show that something has ‘more’ of a particular quality, or perhaps that is has the ‘most’ possible of that quality. In grammar, this is known as ‘comparison of adjectives’ or as ‘degrees of comparison’.

English

The base quality is known as the ‘positive degree,’ and is expressed by an adjective in its simple form, eg ‘big.

To denote that something is ‘more’, we add the suffix (ending) ‘er’. In a word like ‘big’, we also double the final consonant, thus ‘bigger.’ This is called the comparative degree.

To say that something is the ‘most’, we add the suffix ‘-est’. This is called the superlative degree and following our example, would be ‘biggest’, again doubling the final consonant.

If the adjective is a long word or has several syllables, we usually place ‘more’ and ‘most’ before it instead of adding a suffix to the end.

Latin

Comparison of adjectives is also found in Latin with the comparative and superlative endings being added to the base of the positive form.

Comparative Degree

The basic rule for forming comparative adjectives is to add:

• -ior for masculine and feminine adjectives
• -ius for neuter adjectives.

Superlative

To form the superlative:

• the ending -issimus is added to the positive stem when it ends in –x or –s;
• -rimus when it ends in -r
• -limus when it ends in -ilis

Other Forms of Comparison of Adjectives

Other means to indicate the comparison of adjectives are sometimes found in the Vulgate, where prepositions such as super, a, prae and ex may be used after the comparative adjective.

dulciora super mel et favum

sweeter than honey and the honeycomb. (Psalm 18:11)

minuisti eum paulo minus ab angelis 

Thou hast made him a little lower than the angels (Heb. 2:7)

A simple way to express comparison for adjectives is to add the adverb ‘magis’ to express the comparative and the adverb ‘maxime’ to express the superlative.

mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxime culpa

through my fault, through my fault, through my greatest fault