31.224 Comparative Adjectives

Make sure you read Croy section 224 carefully. He discusses adjectives here, which are words that modify nouns. Adjectives in Greek, as in English, have three degrees: the positive degree, the comparative degree ("more") and the superlative degree ("most"). As in English, some Greek adjectives have a series of three degrees formed with a set of standard endings (as in English "loud, louder, loudest," or "lucky, luckier, luckiest," etc.). Other adjectives are irregular in their comparative and superlative forms, just as English features some irregular forms ("good, better, best," or "bad, worse, worst," etc.).

The Greek comparative ending is usually -τερος / τερον, -τερη , following the standard first and second declension endings for masculine, neuter and feminine adjectives.

The Greek superlative ending is usually -τατος / τατον, -τατη , following the standard first and second declension endings for masculine, neuter and feminine adjectives.

In the vocabulary for this lesson, you have a number of irregular comparative forms which you need to simply memorize.

Note also that in Biblical Greek, the superlative is found rarely, and you will often see a comparative adjective used in a superlative sense. In some cases, the positive (dictionary form) of the adjective is used with the force of the comparative form.