Degrees of Adjectives

Positive Degree:

"An adjective used to denote the mere existence of some quality of what we speak about is called Positive Degree of Adjective."

Example:

1. Saima is a good girl.
2. Mangoes are sweet.
3. This table is precious.

Sweet, good, and precious are personal attributes and they have no competition with anyone else. Remember that a positive degree has nothing to do with competition. It can only be spoken in simple terms.

In other words, the positive degree is the normal form of an adjective or adverb. Uncompared forms of an adjective or adverb.

Nice, rich, pretty, handsome, good, large, small etc.

Comparative Degree:

"An adjective which denotes a higher degree of the quality than positive and used when two things or set of things are compared is called Comparative Degree of Adjective."

Example:

1. Waqar is more intelligent than Sultan.
2. This box is larger than that box.
3. Masfa is better than Alishba.
4. She is richer than him.

• The above sentences represent a parallel and a competition. For example, Masfa is better than Alishba. In order to make the comparison between Masfa and Alishba, a comparative degree is used. 
• Remember that during the balance we use "more" and "than" in degrees. "Than" will appear in every sentence while we will apply "more" as required. And to make a comparative degree, we often add "er" before the positive degree. 
• In this degree, we can make sentences in two ways. For example:

"Waqar is more intelligent than Sultan."

We can also write like this:

"Sultan is less intelligent than Waqar."

But the meaning will not change.

Superlative Degree:

"An Adjective which denotes the highest degree of the quality and is used when more than two things or set of things are compared is called Superlative Degree of Adjective."

Example:

1. This boy is the strongest in the class.
2. Harry is the most intelligent of all.
3. This is the highest building in the city.
4. She is the cleverest girl in the class.

• The first sentence focuses on the boy in the whole class and competes with the boys in the whole class to show that the boy is strongest than the boys in the whole class. We usually use this degree to compare more than two persons or objects.
• To make this degree we use "most" and "the" instead of "more" and "than" like a comparative degree. That is, the addition of "est" with a Positive degree and the use of "The" is called a Superlative Degree.
• We use " most" in addition to the superlative degree where there is no competition etc. i.e. we use it only to show the property of the good attributes. The method of using most is very different there, i.i. we do not use "the" with it. As we do in superlative and thus we can recognize superlative degree sentences and other sentences.

Example:

1. He is most unfortunate.
2. It was a most eloquent speech.
3. Truly, a most ingenious device. 

• In the above sentences "most" denotes the superiority of good or bad property of something. there is no mention of "the" anywhere in it.
• Therefore, we can't call it a superlative degree. this use of "most" has been termed as superlative or Absolute superlative.