Overview

You need a winter jacket. There are several stores that carry a variety of winter coats, but you want a red coat. To decide between the few red coats that you find, you use the three degrees of comparison: positive, comparative, and superlative. The red wool jacket is warm. In this sentence, the positive form, warm, is the base form of the modifier and cannot be used to make a comparison. Next, you use the comparative form to evaluate two different red jackets: The red down jacket is warmer than the red wool jacket. Then, you use the superlative form of the modifier to compare three or more coats: Of all the red jackets, the red suede is by far the most attractive.

In your descriptions, you follow the rules for using the comparative forms of modifiers. You add -er or -est to one-syllable modifiers to form the comparative and superlative forms. You add more or most to modifiers with three or more syllables. You use the correct comparative and superlative forms for irregular modifiers. For instance: The wool jacket is the least expensive of the three, would be used to compare the costs of the three red jackets. You remember that well may be used as an adverb telling how ably something is done or as an adjective meaning "in good health"; and you also remember that good is used only as an adjective.

You avoid several common modifier errors. You do not use double comparisons. Double comparisons use both -er or -est and more or most. You do not make incomplete comparisons. Incomplete comparisons are unclear comparisons that omit other or else when comparing a person or thing with the group of which it is part. You avoid double negatives. In other words, you do not incorrectly use two negative words in the same clause. You don't have any misplaced modifiers hanging around your statements either. A misplaced modifier modifies the wrong word, or seems to modify more than one word, in a sentence. You can correct this error by moving the modifier as close as possible to the word it is describing so that the statement is clear. After comparing the coats and thinking about the various features, you make your decision.