Change Positive Degree to Comparative Degree and Comparative Degree to Positive Degree - Step by Step - with Examples | Degree Change

The degrees of adjective are some adjectives of quality. These words intensify the qualities of a noun or a pronoun.

The degrees of adverb are some adverbs intensify the qualities other words except a noun or a pronoun.

Table of Contents:

• Classification of Degrees of Comparison
• Positive to Comparative Transformation (2 rules)
• Comparative to Positive Transformation  (2 rules)
• Important facts

Classification of Degrees of Comparison:

There are three types of degrees of comparison -

1. Positive Degree,
2. Comparative Degree and 
3. Superlative Degree.

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1. Positive Degree:

The positive degree is the simplest form of adjective.

E.g. – young, big.

● I am young. 

● This house is big.

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2. Comparative Degree:

It is the form of adjective which is used to make comparison between two persons or animals or things.

E.g. – younger, bigger.

● I am younger than he. 

● This house is bigger than that house.

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3. Superlative Degree:

This form of adjective is used to make comparison between more than two persons or objects.

E.g. – youngest, biggest.

● I am the youngest son of my family.  

● This house is the biggest house in the city.

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Also read: Conditional Sentences - 0^th, 1^st, 2^nd & 3^rd

Rules: Interchange of Positive Degree and Comparative Degree -

Positive Degree to Comparative Degree

Rule 1:

(I)     The object of positive becomes the subject of comparative;

The subject of positive becomes the object of comparative.

As,

Positive – Peter is as good as John.

Comparative – John is not better than Peter.

Positive – Alex am not so fast as Simon.

Comparative – Simon is faster than Alex.

(II)     In case, a pronoun is used as the subject of a positive degree, the same pronoun will be used as the object in comparative degree and always in subjective case.

After 'than', in comparative degree, never use me, us, him, her, them, rather use I, we, he, she, they.

Examples:

...better than her. ❌

...better than she. ✅

Positive – She is so good as John.

Comparative – John is not better than she.

Positive – I am not as fast as Simon.

Comparative – Simon is faster than I.

I, we, you, he, she are the subjective cases of the pronouns and me, us, him, her, them, him are their objective cases.

Actually, the complete sentences would be -

Positive – She is not so good as John is.

Comparative – John is better than she is.

You can see that there are two clauses - John is better and she is. The pronoun used after 'than' is the subject in second clause. That is why we use it in its subjective case.

Also read: Grammatical Case - Subjective, Objective, Possessive cases.

Rule 2:

The sense or meaning should be the same in both the sentences (the sentence with positive degree and the sentence with comparative degree.)

To keep the sense unchanged, 

An affirmative sentence (with positive degree) is changed to negative sentence (with comparative degree).

A negative sentence (with positive degree) is changed to affirmative sentence (with comparative degree).

Steps to Change Positive Degree to Comparative Degree:

Let’s have a look at an example below—

Positive – Jack is as good as John. 

(Turn into comparative degree.)

Now follow the steps to change the positive degree to comparative –

Step 1:

Write the object of positive degree as the subject of comparative.

John...

Step 2:

Use a suitable verb after the subject of comparative (here the verb is a be verb).

John is...

(‘Suitable’ = according to the number, person of the subject and tense of the verb of  positive degree.)

Step 3:

Remove as...as or so... as.

Step 4:

Put the comparative degree of the adjective (here it is ‘good’ is changed to 'better').

John is better... 

(‘better’ is the comparative degree for ‘good’; good-better-best)

Step 5:

Use ‘than’ after the comparative degree of the adjective.

John is better than...

Step 6:

Put the subject of positive as the object of comparative (here ‘Jack’). 

John is better than Jack.

Nice!

Wait...

Jack is as good as John and John is better than Jack— are not the same in the sense. Both the sentences have different meanings. To keep the sense unchanged we have make the comparative degree negative.

So, the final step is –

Step 7:

Put a ‘not’ after the comparative degree marker (here ‘better’).

John is not better than Jack.

This is the actual answer.

Now we see that “Jack is as good as John” and “John is not better than Jack”— both the sentences are same in meaning/sense. 

The sentence with the positive degree has-

A subject (Jack), a be verb (is), positive degree of adjective (good), an object (John)

The sentence with comparative degree has

A subject (John), verb (is), comparative degree of adjective (better), an object (Jack).

Other Examples:–

Positive – She is as poor as I am.

Comparative – I am not poorer than she.

Positive – I am not so tall as he is.

Comparative – He is taller than I am.

Positive – Golf is not so popular as football.

Comparative – Football is more popular than golf.

Positive – She is as handsome as her sister.

Comparative – Her sister is not handsomer than she.

Read more: Degree words- Positive, Comparative, and Superlative forms of adjective.

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Comparative Degree to Positive Degree

 Rule 1: 

(I) The object of comparative becomes the subject of positive;

The subject of comparative becomes the object of positive.

(II) In case a pronoun is used as the subject of a comparative degree, the same pronoun will be used in positive degree as the object in nominative case.—

Never use me, us, him, her, them, rather use I, we, he, she, they.

...as good as him. ❌

...as good as he. ✅

Read more: Grammatical Case Nominative Case, Objective Case, Possessive Case. 

Rule 2:

The sense or meaning should be the same in both the sentences (the sentence with positive degree and the sentence with comparative degree.)

To keep the sense unchanged, –

An affirmative comparative degree is changed to negative positive degree.

A negative comparative degree is changed to affirmative positive degree.

Steps  to Change Comparative Degree to Positive Degree: 

She was more intelligent than he. (Turn into positive degree)

Step 1:

Write the object of comparative degree as the subject of Positive.

He...

Step 2:

Use a suitable verb after the subject of Positive (here the verb is a be verb).

He was...

(‘Suitable’ = as per the number, person of the subject and tense of the verb of  positive degree.)

Step 3:

Add as...as or so...as.

He is as...as ...

Note: Use as...as in affirmative sentence. And use so...as in negative sentence. 

Step 4:

Put the positive degree of the adjective (here ‘more intelligent’) between so/as and as.

He was so intelligent as ...

(‘intelligent’ is the positive degree for ‘more intelligent’.)

Step 5:

Omit ‘than’ after the comparative degree of the adjective.

He is so intelligent as... ('than' is omitted.)

Step 6:

Put the subject of comparative as the object of positive (here ‘she’). 

He is so intelligent as she.

(Here, the object is 'she', not 'her' because, here we have to use the nominative case of the pronoun as the object.)

[Read more: Noun and Case.]

Step 7:

Put a ‘not’ after the verb (here it is a be verb- ‘is’) to keep the meaning unchanged.

Positive – He is not so intelligent as she.

Other examples:–

Comparative – He is better than I.

Positive – I am not so good as he.

Comparative – This tree is larger than that.

Positive – That tree is not so large as this.

Comparative – She is not taller than her sister.

Positive – Her sister is as tall as she.

Comparative – Football is more interesting than cricket.

Positive – Cricket is not so interesting as Football.

Comparative – He eats more than I.

Positive – I do not eat as much as he does.

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Also read: 10 Most Common Grammar Errors you need to know

Important:

In case of some adjectives - junior, senior, elder, superior, inferior, prefer, preferable, 'to' is used instead of 'than'.

E.g. -

• She is junior than me. (incorrect)
• She is junior to me. (correct)

• Mr. Ray is superior than others. (incorrect)
• Mr. Ray is superior to others. (correct)

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Now practice -

Interchange of Degrees Exercises

Read more: Degree words- Positive, Comparative, and Superlative forms of adjective.

Read more: Interchange of Positive Degree and Comparative Degree. 

Read more: Interchange of Positive Degree and Superlative Degree.

Read more: Interchange of Comparative Degree and Superlative Degree.

Thank you...