Question

Fill in the blank with the comparative degree of the adverb.
Arjun writes ________ than Ram.
a) well
b) better
c) best
d) bad

Answer 1

Hint: Read the given sentence and decipher what it is trying to convey. In the above sentence, it is evident that there is a comparison being made between the writings of two people. Go through the options and choose the one which fits the context best and is in the comparative degree.

Complete answer: An Adverb is a word that elucidates the modification of a verb, an adjective or even the whole part of a sentence. There are three degrees of comparison in adverbs namely: the Positive, the Comparative and the Superlative. In the comparative degree, the word is formed by the end word-” er” or is prefixed by the word “more” in some syllable cases. Since the comparison has been made, so the word of comparison is followed by the word ”than”.
In the superlative degree, the word is formed by the end word-” est” or is prefixed by the word “most” in the syllable cases. Besides, it is placed after the word “the”.
Now, let us analyze the given options:
Option(a) ‘well’, it means being in good health and doing something in a good way. Since it’s explicit in the question itself that we’ve to find out comparative degree, moreover the word ”well” doesn’t end with “er” or is prefixed by the word “more”. Hence, option A) is invalid. Option(b) ‘better’, it means being in good condition to a higher degree. In the above sentence, “better” fit in well, as it is the comparative degree of the word “good” and also it ends with the suffix “er” and is followed by the word “than”. Hence, Option B) is correct.
Option(c) ‘best’, is the superlative degree of the word “good” as it ends with est. Hence, this option too becomes incorrect.
Option(d) ‘bad’, it means something that’s not good or is of poor quality. It is the positive degree of the adverb. Hence, this option is incorrect.
Therefore, the correct answer is option b. The sentence will be written as ‘Arjun writes better than Ram’.

Note: Syllable word is the word that is pronounced as a single or unbroken sound. A word can have one syllable (Example: dog, rat), two syllables (Example: apple, sitting) and three syllables (Example: beautiful, important). “Most” and “More” are used with the words having three syllables.