Common mistake: comparatives

Who doesn’t make mistakes? We all do, and it’s the norm when learning a new language. Just expect to make mistakes, move on, and don’t worry about it. Part of my blog is devoted to simplifying your life by correcting common English errors so let’s focus on one: the comparative form.

Incorrect: It is more hot today.


Correct: It is hotter today.

Although adding the word more before an adjective seems to make sense when comparing two things, it’s not always correct in English. Generally, comparatives are formed using -er but, if an adjective is two syllables or more and doesn’t end with a ‘y’, use ‘more’ before the adjective.

Examples of adjective that follow this rule are modern (more modern), interesting (more interesting), beautiful (more beautiful), and so on. Can you think of any others?