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How to Use Positive Degree of Adjectives for English

Updated: Jan 10, 2022

- Positive - The English Language

The Explanation


We all know that the Adjective change in form when they show comparison. A Positive Degree of an adjective is represented when there is no comparison. It is also known as the base form or absolute degree is the basic, un-compared form of an adjective as opposed to either the comparative or superlative degree.

In the English language, there are three degrees of comparison:

  • The Positive Degree- which offers no comparison

  • e.g.: big, good, rich, handsome etc

  • The Comparative Degree- which shows the greater or lesser degree.

  • e.g.: bigger, prettier, better

  • The Superlative Degree- which shows the greatest or least degree

  • e.g.: richest, prettiest, etc

In this post, we are going to explore the Positive Degree of Adjective in more detail.



How to form an Adjective with positive degree

When we speak about only one person or thing, we use the Positive degree.

e.g.: in the phrase "the big house," the adjective big is in the positive degree.

  • Jim is a tall student.

  • This dress is beautiful.

Each sentence mentioned above talks about only one noun and hence uses the positive degree of Adjective.


Rules for ‘how’ and ‘where’ to use positive degree of Adjectives-

Below are some of the rules and uses of Positive Degree of Adjectives

  1. It is used to describe a simple quality of the noun.

How: Comparison of similarities - adjective as + adjective + as …like

e.g.:

When we are talking about two people or we say that John is intelligent, Paul is intelligent.

Using comparison of similarities, we can say ‘John is as intelligent as Paul’.

  1. It is used for negative comparison when we tell about the dissimilarities of two things, people or their qualities.

e.g.:

  • She is not as tall as her father


  1. It is used for Concealed Comparisons when we don’t compare things in a direct way but in an indirect way using not all that + Adjective

e.g.:

  • Its price is not all that high = (The price is not as high as believed)

How to compare two things using positive Degree of Adjectives

In some cases, we can also compare two things in positive degree as below-

Using Gerund

e.g.:

  • Writing is as easy as singing

  • Walking is as difficult as running

With Infinitive

e.g.:

  • It is not as easy to say as you believe.

Positive degree of Adjective is also used with some following words like ‘had better’, ‘had rather’, ‘and had sooner’

e.g.:

  • I had better work than sit idle








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