Collins Cobuild English Grammar (191 page)

Note that with
shy
,
sly
, and
spry
, you add
er
and
est
in the ordinary way.

R28
    
Good
and
bad
have special comparatives and superlatives, which are not formed by adding
er
and
est
or by using
more
and
most
.

Good
has the comparative
better
and the superlative
the best
.

There might be
better
ways of doing it.
This is the
best
museum we’ve visited yet.

Bad
has the comparative
worse
and the superlative
the worst
.

Things are
worse
than they used to be.
The airport there was the
worst
place in the world.

Note that
ill
does not have a comparative form and so
worse
is used instead.

Each day Kunta felt a little
worse
.

R29
    The adjective
old
has regular comparative and superlative forms but, in addition, it has the forms
elder
and
the eldest
. These forms are used only to talk about people, usually relatives.

…the death of his two
elder
brothers in the First World War.
Bill’s
eldest
daughter is a doctor.

Note that unlike
older
,
elder
never has
than
after it.

R30
    There is no comparative or superlative of
little
in Standard English, although children sometimes say
littler
and
the littlest
. When you want to make a comparison, you use
smaller
and
the smallest
.

R31
    The comparatives and superlatives of compound adjectives are usually formed by putting
more
and
most
in front of the adjective.

self-effacing		more self-effacing		the most self-effacing
nerve-racking		more nerve-racking		the most nerve-racking

Some compound adjectives have adjectives as their first part. Comparatives and superlatives of these compounds are sometimes formed using the comparative and superlative of the adjective.

good-looking

better-looking

the best-looking

Similarly, some compound adjectives have adverbs as their first part. Their comparatives and superlatives are sometimes formed using the comparative and superlative of the adverb.

well-paid		better-paid		the best-paid
badly-planned		worse-planned		the worst-planned

The
comparatives and superlatives of adverbs
are explained in paragraphs
R150
to
R154
.

The spelling and pronunciation of possessives

R32
    The use of the possessive form of names and other nouns is explained in
Chapter 1
(
1.211
to
1.221
).

R33
    The possessive form of a name or other noun is usually formed by adding apostrophe
s
(’s) to the end.

Ginny’s
mother didn’t answer.
Howard came into the
editor’s
office.

R34
    If you are using a plural noun ending in
s
to refer to the possessor, you just add an apostrophe (’).