Question

Fill in the blanks with the most appropriate words.
You looked _____ this morning but you look a bit ______ now.
a) depressing / happy
b) depressed / happier
c) depressed / happily
d) depressingly / happily

Answer 1

Hint: In the first part of the sentence, only a simple statement is being made which describes the subject. In the second part of the sentence, a comparison is being made. This means that the word needed is a comparative adjective, which can fulfill the comparison being made.

Complete answer:
An adjective is a word or phrase naming an attribute, added to or grammatically related to a noun to modify or describe it. Its semantic role is to change the information given by the noun. In short, it lends description to the noun. They are of various types such as demonstrative, possessive, qualitative, quantitative, etc.

a) Positive - The positive degree is the simplest degree of comparison. It has no special ending. It offers no comparison, just the existence of a particular quality.
b) Comparative - This degree compares two or more things to find which one exists in a more or less degree. It either has the word ‘more’ before the adjective or has the suffix ‘-er’ after the adjective.
c) Superlative - This degree denotes the most extreme form of the adjective. It is formed by using the article ‘the’ before the adjective and adding either ‘most’ before the adjective or the suffix ‘-est’ after the adjective.
For the given sentence, we need the positive degree for the first blank and the comparative for the second.

Now, we know what we are looking for. Let’s look at the given options-
a) depressing / happy - The first word can be used as an adjective in some situations, however, it cannot be used in the given sentence, as it would be grammatically incorrect. The second word is not a comparative degree. This is not the required answer. So, this is an incorrect option.
b) depressed / happier - The first word is a positive degree adjective, and the second word is a comparative degree adjective. They fit into the given sentence. This is the required answer. So, this is the correct option.
c) depressed / happily - The first word is a positive degree adjective, however, the second word is an adverb. This is not the required answer. So, this is an incorrect option.
d) depressingly / happily - Both of these words are adverbs and do not fit into the given sentence. This is not the required answer. So, this is an incorrect option.

Note:
Look at the given sentence and note that there are two situations that are being compared. The blanks are after verbs. This means that the blank should be filled by a specific part of speech. Choose the correct option accordingly.