for better or worse

My mother had a little ditty she would recite. She had a lot of these in her repertoire, no doubt remembered from some music hall act.

Gooder grammar teached here. Betterer up the stairs. 

Today's theme is the comparative; that is, more with an adjective.

Add -er to the adjective 

poor poorer

old older

young younger

fair fairer

clever cleverer

sometimes just an -r 

nice nicer

double the final consonant

big bigger

sad sadder

words ending in -y changer to -ier (except shy, shyer)

silly sillier

happy happier

Irregular forms

good better

bad worse

little smaller

For  longer words use more instead

more beautiful, more intelligent, more handsome

Some words can be compared both ways

likelier or more likely

commoner or more common

Mistakes occur when both more and -er are used

eg more happier, more likelier xxxxx

You hear these mistakes often. Be careful not to write them!

Test yourself:


what is the comparative of

1. tiny
2. mysterious
3. wet
4. rosy
5. unhappy

Answers: paste upside down answers into FLIP

ɹǝıddɐɥun ɹo ʎddɐɥun ǝɹoɯ ˙5  
ɹǝısoɹ ˙4  
ɹǝʇʇǝʍ ˙3  
snoıɹǝʇsʎɯ ǝɹoɯ ˙2  
ɹǝıuıʇ ˙1