Business Spotlight 08.2019

SKILL UP! 21

GRAMMAR CHECK

IRREGULARS

Make sure you learn the

most common irregular

adjectives:

good → better → best

(^) We expect better results
next quarter.
bad → worse → worst
(^) They had the worst year
on record.
well-known → better-known
→ best-known
(^) He’s the best-known
investor in the sector.
(^) They offer a simpler / more sim-
ple operation.
Two-syllable adjectives that end
in -y can have comparatives with

• ier and superlatives with -iest
  (costly, costlier, costliest) — in-
  cluding compound adjectives.
  Most of them can also follow the
  two-syllable rules:

(^) That must be the costliest /
most costly way to finance the
project.
(^) Their product is the award-
worthiest / most award-worthy.
A good learner’s dictionary will
often tell you which comparative
and superlative forms are more
common.

4. Large or small differences?
   With the comparative form, we
   can emphasize that the difference
   is large or small by using much
   and far:

(^) Performance has been much
stronger this month.
(^) The US firm was much more
profitable than the UK one.
(^) As an investment, the tour oper-
ator is far less attractive.
We can highlight a small difference
by using slightly. Informally, a bit
or a little are also possible:
(^) The results are slightly better,
but not great.
(^) I expect them to become slight-
ly more profitable this quarter.
(^) The Berlin store is growing only
a bit faster than the London
store.
(^) Their offer could easily be a little
more attractive.