Two-syllable adjectives that end with –y usually change their spellings in the comparative form. The y becomes an i, so healthy becomes healthier. Although two-syllable adjectives usually use more in the comparative, we shouldn't use it when the adjective changes form like this. Note that the intensifier much doesn't affect the adjective.
Comparative and superlative
- ✅ She is taller than me. — ❌ She is more taller than me. (double comparative)
- ✅ This is the most interesting book. — ❌ This is the interestingest book.
- ✅ He did better than expected. — ❌ He did more good than expected. (irregular)
- ✅ That's the worst idea ever. — ❌ That's the baddest idea ever.
Comparatives compare two things (-er or more); superlatives pick the extreme of three+ (-est or most). Short adjectives use -er/-est; longer ones use more/most. Never combine both.
Rule: one or two syllables → -er/-est (with exceptions). Three+ syllables → more/most. Irregulars (good/better/best, bad/worse/worst) must be memorised.
Adjective
- ✅ a tall building — ❌ a tally building
- ✅ The soup is hot — ❌ The soup is hotly
- ✅ a lovely small old table — ❌ a small lovely old table
- ✅ She seems tired — ❌ She seems tiredly
These bolded words are adjectives — words that describe nouns or pronouns. They sit before a noun (a tall building) or after a linking verb (The soup is hot).
Pattern: if a word can slot between a/the and a noun (a ___ thing) and can take -er/-est, it's almost certainly an adjective.
B2 | Upper Intermediate
- ✅ If I had studied harder, I would have passed. — third conditional
- ✅ The report is being reviewed by the committee. — passive progressive
- ✅ Having finished the exam, she left. — participle clause
- ✅ He denied having taken the money. — complex verb pattern
These are B2 patterns — the CEFR upper-intermediate level. At B2 you handle mixed conditionals, all passive forms, participle clauses, and can argue a point clearly. This is the level most universities and employers require.
Marker: if you can write a structured essay and debate an abstract topic, you're B2.
Hard
- Had she not intervened, the situation would have escalated. — inverted conditional
- All distractors are grammatically plausible in other contexts
- Multiple rules interact (e.g., tense + aspect + modality)
- Context determines the answer — no single "rule" is enough
Hard marks upper-intermediate to advanced challenges: B2+, interacting rules, edge cases, plausible distractors, and contexts where pattern-matching fails.
Use "Hard" when Easy/Medium feel trivial and you want to test whether you actually understand a rule versus just recognising surface patterns.