Degrees of Comparison

Three degrees: positive (tall), comparative (taller), superlative (tallest). Short words take -er/-est; longer words take more/most; and good–better–best, bad–worse–worst, little–less–least, far–farther–furthest are simply memorised.

1. Two things → comparative, three or more → superlative. "He is the taller of the two brothers", "the tallest boy in the class."
2. The "any other" trap. With a comparative you must exclude the subject itself: "Mumbai is larger than any other city in Maharashtra." Drop "other" and you have claimed Mumbai is larger than itself.
3. Latin comparatives take "to", not "than": superior to, inferior to, senior to, junior to, prior to, preferable to, elder to.
4. Degree transformation. The same fact in three shapes: "No other city in Maharashtra is as large as Mumbai" = "Mumbai is larger than any other city in Maharashtra" = "Mumbai is the largest city in Maharashtra."

The single most common mistake is the double comparative — "more better", "most easiest", "more superior". Marathi says जास्त चांगले quite naturally, with the intensifier separate from the adjective, so the English copy carries both markers. In English the -er/-est ending and the word more/most do the same job, so you use exactly one.

How to spot it: after writing a comparison, count the comparison markers in the phrase. If you find both an ending and a "more", delete the "more".

two → comparative, three or more → superlative · one marker only: taller OR more tall, never "more taller" · comparative needs "any other" to exclude itself · superior/inferior/senior/junior/prior/preferable + to, never than

Spot the error: "He is more senior than me by three years." → Two errors sit in one phrase. "Senior" is already a comparative, so "more" must go; and "senior" takes "to", not "than". Correct: "He is senior to me by three years." Sanity check: the same rule runs through junior, superior, inferior, prior and preferable — say them once each with "to" and the pattern sticks.