Gradable adjective and adverbs can also be involved in comparison where the positions of two or more entities on a gradable scale are compared with each other. Semantically, three types of comparison can be distinguished:

    * higher degree (superior)
    * same degree
    * lower degree (inferior)

Comparisons of the same degree use only the general base adjective form.

In higher degree comparisons, the comparison is indicated either by inflectional suffixation, using -er, -est (morphological marking) or by periphrastic constructions involving more, most modifiers preceding the adjective (syntactic marking). The three inflectional forms are known as

    * absolute (or positive)
    * comparative
    * superlative

Lower degree comparisons only use periphrastic constructions involving less and least adjectival modifiers.

Examples:

/Inflectional  /   Periphrastic
    Same degree (Absolute)   /  tall  /   beautiful
    Higher degree     Comparative  /   taller  /   more beautiful
                                  Superlative  /   tallest  /   most beautiful
    Lower degree  /   –   /  less tall, less beautiful
                             /    –   /  least tall, least beautiful