English — comparatives

Eight everyday adjectives graded base → comparative → superlative, with the base meaning in your language. Watch the irregular good and bad.

comparatives
Meaning	Base	Comparative	Superlative
good	good	better	best
bad	bad	worse	worst
big	big	bigger	biggest
small	small	smaller	smallest
old	old	older	oldest
new	new	newer	newest
long	long	longer	longest
expensive	expensive	more expensive	most expensive

⚠ Note

English usually adds -er/-est to short adjectives and uses more/most with many longer ones. German comparatives normally use -er, while superlatives use am ...-(e)sten or a declined -(e)st- form. Spanish, Italian and French usually place más, più and plus before the adjective, respectively; Polish commonly uses -szy/-ejszy and adds naj- for the superlative. The equivalents of good are irregular in these languages, as are the equivalents of bad in most of them.