Study Resource: One-syllable adjectives that have ‘more’ / ‘most’ comparatives and superlatives

By: revel arroway

Usually, we form the comparative and superlative forms of one-syllable adjectives by adding -erand -est, but the adjectives in the table also have comparative and superlative forms that are formed by adding the words more or most.


Key to the tables below:
✅ → officially correct ❌ → officially incorrect Forms in red are almost never used.¹ Forms in gray are uncommon forms.¹ Forms in white are common forms.¹ Note: Sometimes forms that are technically incorrect are still used by native speakers!

¹ In published writing, according to Google N-grams (2023)


Stem	- ercomparative - estsuperlative	morecomparative mostsuperlative	Notes
right	✅ righter ✅ rightest	✅ more right ✅ most right
wrong	✅ wronger ✅ wrongest	✅ more wrong ✅ most wrong
fun	✅ funner ✅ funnest	✅ more fun ✅ most fun	Many dictionaries do not accept funner/funnest
real	✅ realer ✅ realest	✅ more real ✅ most real	realestis sometimes used, but realer is very rare
ill	❌ iller ❌ illest	✅ more ill ✅ most ill
worth	❌ worther ❌ worthest	✅ more worth ✅ most worth
drunk	✅ drunker ✅ drunkest	✅ more drunk ✅ most drunk
Past participles never have *-er/-est* forms
lost	❌ loster ❌ lostest	✅ more lost ✅ most lost
bored	❌ boreder ❌ boredest	✅ more bored ✅ most bored