Grammar: A2 - ✨ Grammar Essentials: 🧩 Parts of Speech - Expanding - Lesson 12: Irregular Comparatives & Superlatives (good/better/best, bad/worse/worst)

✨ Lesson 12: Irregular Comparatives & Superlatives

In our last lessons, we learned the rules for forming comparatives (-er/more) and superlatives (the -est/the most). However, some of the most common adjectives in English are irregular¹.

Irregular adjectives do not follow the rules. You must memorize² their special forms. Let's look at the most important ones.

Good → Better → The Best

We never say "gooder" or "the goodest". The forms are special.

• This soup is good.
• But the soup at the other restaurant is better than this one.
• My mother's soup is the best soup in Siem Reap!

Bad → Worse → The Worst

We never say "badder" or "the baddest".

• The traffic today is bad.
• It was worse than this yesterday because of the rain.
• For me, Monday morning has the worst traffic of the week.

Summary of Common Irregular Adjectives

Here is a table of the most common irregular forms you should learn.

Adjective	Comparative Form	Superlative Form
good	better	the best
bad	worse	the worst
far	further / farther	the furthest / the farthest
little (amount)	less	the least
much / many	more	the most

Note: You already know 'more' and 'the most' from our lessons on regular long adjectives! They are actually the irregular forms of 'much' and 'many'.

🧠 Practice Quiz: Complete the Sentences

Complete the sentences with the correct irregular form of the adjective in parentheses ( ).

1. My English is good, but her English is ________ than mine. (good)
   → better
2. This is ________ coffee I have ever tasted! It's terrible. (bad)
   → the worst
3. Of all the temples, which one is ________ from the city? (far)
   → the furthest / the farthest
4. I think watching the sunrise at Angkor Wat is ________ experience. (good)
   → the best

📝 Homework: Give Your Opinion

Write three sentences giving your opinion. Use 'better', 'the best', 'worse', or 'the worst' in your answers.

Example: I think coffee is better than tea. Waking up early is the worst!

---

1: ___________________________________

2: ___________________________________

3: ___________________________________

Vocabulary Glossary

1. Irregular: (Adjective) - មិនទៀងទាត់ (mĭn tieng'toăt) - Not following the usual rules or patterns. ↩
2. Memorize: (Verb) - ចងចាំ (châng'cham) - To learn something so that you can remember it exactly. ↩