Hello hey ho, fellas! Still following our previous discussion on ‘participial adjective’, we will talk about stating degrees of comparison.

Degrees of comparison are used when we compare one thing/person with another. There are three degrees of comparison:

positive,
comparative, and
superlative.

Comparative degree of comparison

Let’s start with the comparative degree. The comparative degree is used to compare
two persons or things having the same quality.

To form the comparative degree of adjectives, we usually add -er to adjective with two or less syllables. Example:

Taller
Lighter
Nicer

However, when forming the comparative degree of participial adjectives, we use the
word ‘more.’ Example:

Participial adjective	Comparative
Boring	More boring
Bored	More bored
Tiring	More tiring
Tired	More tired
Alarming	More alarming
Alarmed	More alarmed

More example:

Participial adjective	WRONG	Comparative
Relaxing	~~relaxinger~~	more relaxing
Relaxed	~~relaxeder~~	more relaxed
Interesting	~~interestinger~~	more interesting
Interested	~~interesteder~~	more interested
Confusing	~~confusinger~~	more confusing
Confused	~~confuseder~~	more confused

Superlative degree of comparison

Moving on to the superlative degree of adjective. Superlative degree denotes the existence of the highest degree of the quality. The superlative degree of adjective is used to single out one person or thing from all the rest.

To form the superlative degree of adjectives, we usually add ‘-est’ to adjective with
two or less syllables. Example:

Tallest
Lightest
Nicest

However, when forming the superlative degree of participial adjectives, we use the
word ‘most.‘
Example:

Participial adjective	Superlative
Boring	Most boring
Bored	Most bored
Tiring	Most tiring
Tired	Most tired
Alarming	Most alarming
Alarmed	Most alarmed

More example:

Participial adjective	WRONG	Comparative
Relaxing	~~relaxingest~~	Most relaxing
Relaxed	~~relaxedest~~	Most relaxed
Interesting	~~interestingest~~	Most interesting
Interested	~~interestedest~~	Most interested
Confusing	~~confusingest~~	Most confusing
Confused	~~confusedest~~	Most confused

That’s a wrap, fellas! I hope the explanation was clear enough. However, if you have any question on the topic, feel free to leave a message in the comment box.

Compiled and written by @miss_qiak for @EnglishTips4U on Saturday, April 8, 2017

Pengertian degree words

Degree word digunakan untuk menjawab pertanyaan “How“ (Bagaimana), “How far“ (Seberapa jauh), atau “How much“ (Berapa banyak).

Sama halnya dengan adverb (kata keterangan), yang mana digunakan untuk menerangkan adjective (kata sifat), adverb, verb (kata kerja), degree word digunakan untuk mengungkapkan ide atau kualitas suatu hal, dengan skala (scale) dari positif ke negatif.

Seperti pada contoh dalam dialog di awal tadi, “absolutely perfect“ menunjukkan bahwa film tadi teramat sangat bagus (sempurna). Frasa tersebut juga mengungkapkan nilai positif dari film yang mereka tonton.

Di bawah ini adalah beberapa contoh degree word yang menunjukkan nilai suatu hal dari skala positif ke negatif.

Absolutely perfect!
Really excellent.
Very good indeed.
Very good.
Good.
Quite good.
Fairly good.
Not very good.
Rather poor.
Bad.
Very bad.
Extremely bad.
Utterly dreadful!

Pada contoh, nomor 1 berada di posisi paling positif (teramat sangat bagus), sementara nomor 13 berada di posisi paling negatif (teramat sangat menyedihkan).

Scales of degree

Scales of degree mengacu pada skala derajat (degree) dari degree word. Scales of degree dibagi ke dalam 3 kelompok, yaitu

The highest degree, yang meliputi kata completely, totally, quite, entirely, absolutely, altogether, dan utterly.
- Contoh:
  - absolutely perfect.
The high degree, yang terdiri dari kata very, much, very much, a lot, extremely, considerably, dan a great deal.
- Contoh:
  - very nice.
The middle/low degree yang terdiri dari kata quite, rather, (a) little, slightly, fairly, somewhat. Informal: pretty, dan a bit.
- Contoh:
  - pretty good.

Menggunakan degree word

Bagaimana cara menggunakan degree word? Biasanya, degree word kita gunakan sebelum adjective, adverb, comparative word (better, nicer, etc).

Contoh penggunaan sebelum adjective:
- absolutely perfect
- very nice,
- pretty good.
Contoh pengunaan sebelum adverb:
- extremely loudly
- quite often
- a bit slowly.
Contoh penggunaan sebelum comparative word:
- totally better
- much younger
- a little more.

Dalam penggunaannya, degree word selalu diletakkan sebelum adjective, adverb, atau comparative word, kecuali untuk kata “enough.” Kata tersebut selalu diletakkan setelah kata yang dijelaskan.