Which word or words should replace the underlined words? “This year's chemistry final was [more harder] than last year's.”

Use Standard Grammar, Usage, and Spelling to Edit · TELPAS Grades 10–12 writing. The correct answer, and the reasoning behind it.

Reporting category 2: find and fix an error in a short text. On the real test some of these are typed answers or sentence rewrites. Here they are multiple choice so they can be checked.

The question

Choose the best answer.

Read the sentence. The underlined words have an error. This year's chemistry final was [more harder] than last year's. Which word or words should replace the underlined words?

• Ahardest
• BharderCorrect answer
• Cmore hard
• Dmost hard

Why “harder” is correct

This tests comparative adjectives. A one-syllable adjective like 'hard' forms its comparative by adding -er, and it never uses 'more' as well. 'More harder' is a common double comparative error.

Why the other answers are wrong

• hardest — 'Hardest' is the superlative, used to compare three or more things, but this sentence compares two tests with 'than'.
• more hard — Short adjectives like 'hard' add -er instead of using 'more'.
• most hard — 'Most' forms the superlative, and short adjectives do not use it with 'than'.

Practice more of this

More writing practice for Grades 10–12, or see the TELPAS practice test for 10th–12th grade.