Comparative Adjectives

Atchan · Jul 16, 2010

When we use adjectives (e.g., old, important) to compare two people or two things, the adjectives have special forms:

a) We add –er to an adjectives that have one-syllable.
b) We use more in front of adjectives that have two or more syllable.

What I want to talk about is syllable, what it means?

I have checked it on the dictionary and gave me this meaning “a single unit of speech, either a whole word or one of the parts into which a word can be separated, usually containing a vowel” but I do still not understand it.

Adjectives with one syllable
Old >>> Older
Cheap >>> Cheaper
Big >>> Bigger
What is one syllable?

And here adjectives with two or more syllable
Famous >>> more famous
Important >>> more important
Interesting >>> more interesting
Can you point to the syllables that are in these words?

I know everything relating to comparative adjectives except syllables which need for explanation.

Thank you in advance.

Atchan · Jul 16, 2010

What is one syllable?
You seem to be confusing comparitives with syllables. Old, older, and oldest are ways of comparing things - while each has certain syllables, they are not syllables.

So what do think of this
Cheap >>> Cheaper
Does it has one-syllable? I think two che - ap. I hope that I'm wrong.

Atchan · Jul 16, 2010

Gillnetter said:
Cheap - er (Two syllables)
Cheap (One syllable)

Get away from the idea that syllables have anything to do with comparsions - they don't.

Establishment: es - tab - lish - ment. Four syllables.
Disestablishing: dis - es- tab - lish - ing. Five syllables
Rather: rath - er or rah - ther. Two syllables

Syllables are about how words are pronounced.

OK my teacher I will get away from this idea because I thought that its necessary. Some English books say its necessary while the others do not pay attention to this rule (as they say). So I will continue my studying.

Thank you for your help

chester_100 · Jul 17, 2010

atchan said:
When we use adjectives (e.g., old, important) to compare two people or two things, the adjectives have special forms:</p>
a) We add –er to an adjectives that have one-syllable.
b) We use more in front of adjectives that have two or more syllable.

</p>

You're right.
We can't call it a rule, but most of English adjectives follow that pattern.
The syllable is a rather complicated linguistic concept. It won't help you much in your studies. But, it wouldn't hurt to know some things about it: we expect a syllable to have a vowel, and/or one or two consonants that may come before or after the vowel. So a one-syllable word is a word that has at least one vowel.

-Red = r + e + d -----> consonant + vowel + consonant
-old = o + l + d -----> vowel + consonant +consonant

These words are short, so we attach an -er to them for comparison:
-old + er

Atchan · Jul 17, 2010

chester_100 said:
</p>

You're right.
We can't call it a rule, but most of English adjectives follow that pattern.
The syllable is a rather complicated linguistic concept. It won't help you much in your studies. But, it wouldn't hurt to know some things about it: we expect a syllable to have a vowel, and/or one or two consonants that may come before or after the vowel. So a one-syllable word is a word that has at least one vowel.

-Red = r + e + d -----> consonant + vowel + consonant
-old = o + l + d -----> vowel + consonant +consonant

These words are short, so we attach an -er to them for comparison:
-old + er

Its nice to learn it and will not hurt us as a student, but it really confuses most students. In the first I thought its a rule but know I realized that its a rubbish.

As the teacher Gillnetter said
"Get away from the idea that syllables have anything to do with comparsions - they don't".

Really its nice words.

Comparative Adjectives

Atchan

Key Member

Atchan

Key Member

Atchan

Key Member

chester_100

Member

Atchan

Key Member

Similar threads