1. Comparative Forms
More About Adjectives

2. 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

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

4. 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.

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

6. 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

7. 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----

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

9. 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

10. 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

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

12. 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

13. 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.

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

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

16. 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

17. puellam tristiorem viro altiore periculis gravioribus
ANSWERS
puellam tristiorem viro altiore periculis gravioribus