Comparative Forms More About Adjectives

REVIEW OF THE BASICS How many declensions are there for adjectives? TWO What are they? 1st -2nd AND 3rd How can you tell the declension? 1st – 2nd look for the –a 3rd look for the -is

Review of the Basics cont. How do you get the BASE of an adjective? Drop the –a or -is

Attributes of an Adjective All adjectives have GENDER, NUMBER, CASE and DEGREE The gender, number and case depend on the noun that the adjective is modifying.

SUPERLATIVE - biggest COMPARATIVE - bigger DEGREES There are three degrees for an adjective. POSITIVE - big COMPARATIVE - bigger SUPERLATIVE - biggest

HOW TO FORM THE COMPARATIVE Get the base of the adjective Add -ior or -ius Add 3rd declension NOUN endings to make the adjective agree with the gender, number and case of the noun being modified

equos (always do the noun first) EXAMPLE taller horses - accusative plural equos (always do the noun first) altus, alta, altum drop the –a to get the base alt----

Add ior altior---- Add an accusative, plural, masculine 3rd decl noun ending to altior---- to make it agree with equos Equos altiores

Dissecting the adjective alt ior es Base comparative ending The ending is acc. pl. masc. because the noun was acc. pl. masc. The ending is –es because comparative forms are 3rd declension

ALL other forms use -ior WHEN DO YOU USE –IUS? The –ius form is ONLY used for NEUTER, SINGULAR NOMINATIVE AND ACCUSATIVE. ALL other forms use -ior

Here are all the possible forms MASC / FEM SINGULAR PLURAL NEUTER -ior -iores -ius -iora -ioris -iorum -iori -ioribus -iorem -iore

NOTA BENE Notice the form for the masculine/feminine singular, nominative does NOT add ANY ending. It is just -ior Notice the neuter, nominative and accusative singular use -ius

Notice the endings you add are 3rd declension endings. NOTA BENE Notice the endings you add are 3rd declension endings. It does not matter what declension an adjective is. Once it is put in the comparative, it uses the COMPARATIVE ENDINGS.

too rather more -----er TRANSLATIONS THERE ARE FOUR WAYS TO TRANSLATE THE COMPARATIVE too rather more -----er

Some examples rather angry leaders (acc. pl) duces iratiores more beautiful flowers (dat. pl.) floribus pulchrioribus faster horse (nom. sing.) equus celerior

TRY THESE rather sad girl (acc. sing.) taller man (abl. sing) more serious dangers (abl. pl.) puella, puellae; tristis, triste vir, viri; altus, alta, altum periculum, periculi; gravis, grave

puellam tristiorem viro altiore periculis gravioribus ANSWERS puellam tristiorem viro altiore periculis gravioribus