Higher, highest: altior, altissimus

English says taller for short words and more beautiful for long ones. Latin nearly always uses an ending, however long the word: stem plus -ior for the comparative, stem plus -issimus for the superlative.

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1. 1canis parvus
2. 2canis maior
3. 3canis maximus

Canis parvus, a small dog; canis maior, a bigger dog; canis maximus, the biggest dog. Magnus, big, is irregular: maior, maximus.

The main exceptions are adjectives with a vowel before -us (except -quus), such as idoneus, suitable, which say magis idoneus (more suitable) and maxime idoneus (most suitable).

The regular pattern

Take the stem from the genitive singular, then add the endings:

Felix shows why the stem comes from the genitive: felix, felicis, so felic-. And the plain adjective's family does not matter: altus declines like bonus, fortis is third-declension, and their comparatives are built the same way.

The neuter comparative ends in -ius:

• Mons altior est. - The mountain is higher.
• Templum altius est. - The temple is higher.

The superlative declines like bonus, bona, bonum: altissima (feminine), altissimum (neuter).

How the comparative declines

The comparative is a third-declension consonant stem, even when the plain adjective was an i-stem. Singular:

Plural:

The trap is a word like fortis, which has the i-stem endings in its plain form and the consonant-stem endings in its comparative:

• cum milite fortiore - with a braver soldier