heavier / more heavy - comparative (2025)

Hi all !

Is there any rule to follow when comparing?

For example: HEAVY

- My car is more heavy than yours...
- My car is heavier than yours...

I think it depends on the lenght of the adjective but not sure....

Thank you all

Hello!

I think it depends on how many syllables the word has..

For example:
With a one syllable word such as 'hot', you would say:
my plate is

than yours

Two syllable word such as expensive, you would say:
this book is

than the other.

However with a two syllable word ending in 'y', such as heavier, there is an exception to this rule:
my car is

than yours
I am

than her.

I hope this helps! Maybe someone else can clarify this too!

the irregular ones:

good ---> better
bad ----> worse
far ----> further

and those ones which double the consonant:

fat ---> fatter
hot ---> hotter

hope it helps as the other answers !!

Excellent !

Thank you all

Hi there.
As far as I'm aware, words with two syllables can form the comparative either by adding -er suffix or more. And also can form the superlative either by adding -est suffix or most.

Example words
* Heavy heavier/more heavy heaviest/the most heavy
* Peaceful peacefuler/more peaceful peacefulest/the most peaceful

*** Here's a point, it's better to google two-syllable words to see the fluency usage of each form. As an example, the adjective peaceful is usually used with the second form using more and most in English and among native societies.

Hope it helps as the other answers!!

jenwren said:

Two syllable word such as expensive, you would say:
this book is

more expensive

than the other.

Click to expand...

Expensive tiene

sílabas, no dos: ex-pen-sive. Y los que tienen tres, creo que sin excepción alguna, lo forman con "more" el comparativo y "most" el superlativo.

jenwren said:

However with a two syllable word ending in 'y', such as heavier, there is an exception to this rule:

Click to expand...

Such as heavy...
Habría que mencionar también que entre los que tienen

sílabas,

de los terminados en "ow" como narrow, de los terminados en "er" como clever, de los terminados en "le" como gentle, admiten las dos formas.

Añado, para completar el último comentario de franzjekill, lo que dice M. Swan (Practical English Usage, 143, 2c):

c With a few adjectives, both kinds of comparative and superlative are possible. These are: common, handsome, polite, quiet, wicked, pleasant, cruel, stupid, tired, and words ending in -ow, -er, and -le.

With nearly all of these words, the forms with more and most are most common. So a simple rule for two-syllable asjectives is: use more and most except for the ones ending in -y.

3 Long adjectives (with three or more syllables)
These have more and most.

beautiful, more beautiful, most beautiful
catastrophic, more catastrophic, most catastrophic
unbelievable, more unbelievable, most unbelievable

Words like unhappy (negative forms of two-syllable adjectives ending in -y) are an exception: it is possible to say unhappier and unhappiest instead of more unhappy and most unhappy.

MahdiHeidari said:

* Heavy heavier/more heavy heaviest/the most heavy
* Peaceful peacefuler/more peaceful peacefulest/the most peaceful

Click to expand...

In my opinion:
heavier, heaviest
more heavy, most heavy
peacefuler, peacefulest
more peaceful, most peaceful

Any two-syllable adjective ending in -y should use the -er/-est form.

As for peacefuler, I don't care what any dictionary says; that just sounds horrible.

Doraemon- said:

Words ending in -le (simple->simpler, gentle->gentler...) are monosyllabic words, actually.

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Not in my opinion, and not according to the dictionary I checked, which gave those as sim·ple and gen·tle, meaning that they each have two syllables. English dictionaries always break words into syllables.

In general we say "heavier" but the rules for comparatives are really confusing because we break them all the time, depending on the context. Part of this can be due to one's dialect, but there are also specific cases:

No one will look at you twice if you say "heavier" or "more heavy", and both make perfect sense. I guess the point is that langauge is constantly changing, and the rules associated with it as well. If you aren't sure, go with the traditional rule: "Y" changes to "IER"

Doraemon- said:

I was taught that -er/-est in bisyllabic words are used when they end in -er, -y and -ow.
Words ending in -le (simple->simpler, gentle->gentler...) are monosyllabic words, actually.

Click to expand...

Adding -er usually adds a syllable, but not necessarily with -le:

simple: 2 syllables
simpler: 2 or 3 syllables
gentle: 2 syllables
gentler: 2 or 3 syllables