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Latin Grammar. Comparison of Adjectives. Comparison of Adjectives. In English, adjectives have three degrees: Positive degree— old Comparative degree— older Superlative degree— oldest Compare: new, newer, newest ugly, uglier, ugliest good, better best
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Latin Grammar Comparison of Adjectives
Comparison of Adjectives • In English, adjectives have three degrees: • Positive degree—old • Comparative degree—older • Superlative degree—oldest • Compare: • new, newer, newest • ugly, uglier, ugliest • good, better best • beautiful, more beautiful, most beautiful
Positive, Comparative, and Superlative Degrees • Latin, too, has these degrees • longus • longior • longissimus • Compare: • altus, altior, altissimus • stultus, stultior, stultissimus • bonus, melior, optimus
Comparative Degree • longus, -a, -um = long • To make its comparative, put –ioron its stem: longior • Other examples: • stultus ➔ stultior • facilis➔ facilior
Comparative Degree • The form in –ioris actually masculine and feminine. • The neuter ends in –ius. • So the full name of the comparative form is longior, longius(or longior, -ius) • Compare: stultior, stultius(stultior, -ius) facilior, facilius(facilior, -ius)
Declining Third Declension Adjectives. • You may remember that most third-declension adjectives are i-stems and have i-stem endings.
Declining Comparative Adjectives • Comparatives are third-declension, but they aren’t i-stems, so they use consonant stem endings.
Superlatives To make a superlative, add –issimus to the adjective stem. Examples: longus➔ longissimus stultus➔ stultissimus audāx➔ audācissimus
Superlatives All adjectives whose first form ends in –er, oddly, add –rimus. Examples: pulcher➔ pulcherrimus miser➔ miserrimus celer➔ celerrimus
Superlatives All a few adjectives that end in –ilis, like facilis and similis make their superlatives like so: Examples: facilis➔ facillimus similis➔ simillimus
Good News • Superlatives are easy to decline. • They all decline just like multus, -a, -um
Irregular Comparatives and Superlatives • Just as English has good, better, best and bad, worse, worst, Latin has some irregular adjectives. bonus, melior, optimus malus, peior, pessimus multus, plus, plūrimus magnus, maior, maximus