Adjectives and adverbs. The grammatical category of degrees of comparison

im-il-balance – imbalance, legal – illegal, polite – impolite, legible – illegible, possible – impossible, logical – illogical.

See also:

Prefixes


Suffixes

Adjectives: comparative and superlative

Many one-syllable adjectives have endings to show the comparative and superlative.

base form. comparative, superlative

fine - finer - finest

young - younger - youngest
small - smaller - smallest

Some two-syllable adjectives which end in an unstressed syllable also have these endings.

base form, comparative, superlative

easy - easier - easiest

funny - funnier - funniest

gentle - gentler - gentlest

However, we do not use these endings with two-syllable adjectives ending in a stressed syllable nor with longer adjectives with more than two syllables. The comparatives and superlatives of these adjectives are formed using more and most.

base form, comparative, superlative

complete

more complete Not: completer

most complete Not: completest

See also:

Comparative and superlative adjectives

Adjectives: with -ing and -ed (interesting, interested)

We use the -ing and -ed forms of regular and irregular verbs as adjectives:

-ing forms

Verb example

annoy - My brother is five and he’s so annoying.

Amaze - The Grand Canyon is an amazing place.

Boil - Be careful! That’s boiling water!

Excite - This film is not very exciting, is it?

Adverbs are one of the four major word classes, along with nouns, verbs and adjectives. We use adverbs to add more information about a verb, an adjective, another adverb, a clause or a whole sentence and, less commonly, about a noun phrase.