- She, having finished her work, went home.
- They, having completed the organization, left the city.
- He, having been defeated, became discouraged.
In these sentences, the participles, having finished, having completed, and having been defeated, are used as adjectives to modify the pronouns she, they and he.
COMPARISON
264. We have found that adjectives are a very important part of our speech for without them we could not describe the various objects about us and make known to others our ideas concerning their various qualities. But with the addition of these helpful words we can describe very fully the qualities of the things with which we come into contact. We soon find, however, that there are varying degrees of these qualities. Some objects possess them in slight degree, some more fully and some in the highest degree. So we must have some way of expressing these varying degrees in the use of our adjectives.
This brings us to the study of comparison of adjectives. Suppose I say:
- That orange is sweet, the one yonder is sweeter, but this one is sweetest.
I have used the adjective sweet expressing a quality possessed by oranges in three different forms, sweet, sweeter and sweetest. This is the change in the form of adjectives to show different degrees of quality. This change is called comparison, because we use it when we compare one thing with another in respect to some quality which they possess, but possess in different degrees.
The form of the adjective which expresses a simple quality, as sweet, is called the positive degree. That which expresses a quality in a greater degree, as sweeter, is called the comparative degree. That which expresses a quality in the greatest degree, as sweetest, is called the superlative degree.
265. Comparison is the change of form of an adjective to denote different degrees of quality.
There are three degrees of comparison, positive, comparative and superlative.