Intro to the comparative and the superlative

Comparatives and superlatives are features of English that allow us to compare one thing to another. To make the comparative, say "more happy" or "happier". To make the superlative, say "the most happy" or "happiest".

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I am Divergent
Posted 8 years ago. Direct link to I am Divergent's post “if this is grammer why is...”
if this is grammer why is david teaching us made up words like blarfy and dosa scomp. lol
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(37 votes)
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- David Rheinstrom
  Posted 8 years ago. Direct link to David Rheinstrom's post “You remembered them, didn...”
  You remembered them, didn't you? ;)
  
  That's why.
  Comment on David Rheinstrom's post “You remembered them, didn...”
  (184 votes)
7T7
Posted 9 months ago. Direct link to 7T7's post “nah Cesar looks so confus...”
nah Cesar looks so confused ?
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(16 votes)
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None
Posted 5 years ago. Direct link to None's post “why do we put "--er" or "...”
why do we put "--er" or "--est" when "most" or "more" already shows comparison?
why don't we put "--er" or "--est" when we use "less" or "least"?
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(7 votes)
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- Polina Viti?
  Posted 5 years ago. Direct link to Polina Viti?'s post “Try saying them super fas...”
  Try saying them super fast: "more-est" almost sounds like "most" and "less-est" kind of sounds like "least"
  
  So - a long time ago - the "-est" was added to show comparison, but the sound just blended in with the rest of the word. And over time, the spelling of the word was adjusted to reflect how it sounded.
  
  Hope this helps!
  Comment on Polina Viti?'s post “Try saying them super fas...”
  (17 votes)
Marissa Miller
Posted 10 months ago. Direct link to Marissa Miller's post “With the colors, the peng...”
With the colors, the penguins look radioactive!
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(15 votes)
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Thiam
Posted a year ago. Direct link to Thiam's post “how can Cesar be so unhap...”
how can Cesar be so unhappy with that cool name?
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(12 votes)
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keyaan.ahamed
Posted a year ago. Direct link to keyaan.ahamed's post “I love how Cesar is depre...”
I love how Cesar is depressed, Raul looks like he's about to spontaneously combust, and Gabriela is going insane.
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Richard Fan
Posted 6 years ago. Direct link to Richard Fan's post “so pretty much superlativ...”
so pretty much superlative means that something is the most or least of something while comparitive talks about a comparison
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(7 votes)
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Shanker Kumar
Posted 6 years ago. Direct link to Shanker Kumar 's post “Why we can't say less hap...”
Why we can't say less happier instead of less happy
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(5 votes)
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- Stellarix
  Posted 6 years ago. Direct link to Stellarix's post “WHY would you use it?! Wh...”
  WHY would you use it?! When you say "less", you are already using a comparative degree. So, I guess you won't like to waste your time, energy or your ink by uselessly adding a second comparative by making it happier instead of happy. You know, every moment of your life is precious. Don't waste it on adding two comparatives when you can work perfectly well with only one. Just use less happy or simply sadder.
  Hope it helped :)
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  (10 votes)
Amayah
Posted 8 months ago. Direct link to Amayah's post “raul looks hyper and trau...”
raul looks hyper and traumatized, cesar looks confused and kinda depressed, and gabriella looks like she's freaking out. Are the three okay? Is there a polar bear somewhere?
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(9 votes)
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shahnoor sultan
Posted 3 years ago. Direct link to shahnoor sultan's post “Without the subtitles its...”
Without the subtitles its very difficult to understand the definitions that David is telling us.
Do you guys conduct online classes cause I want to study with David 1 to 1??
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(6 votes)
Answer
- David Alexander
  Posted 3 years ago. Direct link to David Alexander's post “1) So, turn on the closed...”
  1) So, turn on the closed captions.
  2) Khan Academy does not conduct one on one classes, even if you pay for them. This is free. Enjoy it that way.
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  (5 votes)

Video transcript

- [Voiceover] SO we've got these three penguins, grammarians we've got Raúl, who you may remember from his sweet mohawk, we've got Cesar and we've got Gabriela. Three magellanic penguins from Argentina. And they are all different amounts of happy. Cesar is a medium amount of happy, Raúl is more happy, and Gabriela is the most happy. And in English, we have a way to compare these. To compare Raúl to Cesar. To compare Raúl to Gabriela, or any combination thereof. We call these comparative and superlative adjectives. And before I get too into the weeds on that, let me just show you what that looks like. So we can say Raúl, let me put in the accent, Raúl is a happy penguin. He's go all the fish he wants, life is good. Raúl is happier than Cesar. This is what we call a comparative, because we're comparing Raúl to Cesar, and we're comparing their happiness levels. And Raúl has more happiness in him than Cesar does. Poor Cesar. However, Gabriela is the happiest penguin. Ta-da. The happiest is something that we call superlative in English. So it's not just a comparison. It's not Raúl is happier than Cesar. Gabriela is happier than all the other penguins. She is the happy-est, she is the happiest, she is the most happy. So one way to think about this is that Raúls happiness is slightly larger than Cesars happiness, but Gabriela's happiness is double plus, is unbeatably more than both of them. I'm gonna use a made up math symbol. Boom boom boom, like super greater than undisputed, she is the happiest penguin. Because the comparative is the same thing as saying more. The comparative equals more, and the superlative equals most. So this is slightly more, this is super much more. And something that's neat about English is that you can use the comparative and superlative for both positive relationships and also negative relationships. So we could say Raúl is a happy penguin, and we can say Raúl is happier than Cesar. We can also say Cesar is less happy than Raúl. So this is comparative but it's going the other way. Right. Cesar is less happy than Raúl. So then we use the less than symbol. Gabriela is the happiest penguin, and so for this group of three, Cesar is the least happy. So you can use the comparative and the superlative forms of adjectives to compare relationships where one thing is more or most than another or others, or relationships where one thing is less or least than others. That's how the comparative and superlative work, but if you stick around for the next video, I'm gonna talk about how to figure out, how to form the comparative and superlative when you're looking at a word you've never seen before, like, what if we made up a word, like like blarfy. What do you do with that? Well, you'll find out next time. In the meantime, you can learn anything. David out.