Question

Fill in the blank with the most appropriate word.
The brown car is ____ than the white car.
(a) Smaller
(b) The smallest
(c) Smallest
(d) Small

Answer 1

Hint: Try to understand the context of the given sentence. Choose the option which can best express the comparison being shown while keeping in mind that it should be in the comparative degree.

Complete answer: Adjectives are those words that are used to modify and describe nouns and pronouns. Degrees of comparison of adjectives are used to describe and compare different qualities of people, things, animals and places.
There are three degrees of comparison-
i. Positive degree- It is used to emphasize a particular quality or trait of someone or something. For example- My mother is tall.
ii. Comparative degree- It is used to show a comparison between two people based on a particular quality or characteristic. For example- My mother is taller than my father.
iii. Superlative degree- It is used to show a comparison between two or more people based on a particular trait. For example- My mother is the tallest member of the family.
In the given question- The correct answer is; The brown car is smaller than the white car. Here, we have used the comparative degree of adjective because we can see the use of ‘than’ and also because we are indicating a comparison between two cars.
Now, let’s examine the given options-
Option a- ‘Smaller’ is the correct option because it is used to indicate a comparison between the two cars.
Option b- ‘The smallest’ is an incorrect option because it is given in the superlative degree and indicates a comparison between two or more things.
Option c- ‘Smallest’ is an incorrect option because it is given in the superlative degree.
Option d- ‘Small’ is an incorrect option because it is given in the positive degree.
The correct answer is Option ‘a’.

Note: Always remember that many adjectives form their comparative degree by adding ‘more’ to the base word. For example- More intelligent, etc. Also, it is important to use ‘than’ with comparative degrees of adjectives. Subject: English