The paradigm of the adjective in Middle English is simplified drastically. The endings become scarce. The category of gender is lost, for the nouns no longer have it. The adjective no longer agrees with the noun in case, the only remaining endings being- the plural form having the ending -e and the remains of the weak declension, the weak form (the one preceded by an article) -e:
young knihit / the younge kniht
younge knihtes / the younge knihtes
But some of the adjectives had the very ending -e as a result of levelling of the vowels at the end, and so such adjectives as grene were already unchangeable; in the plural the .strong and the weak forms also coincided.
The forms of the suffixes of the degrees of comparison were reduced lo -er, -est
glad - gladder – gladdest; greet - gretter - grettest
Some adjectives retained a mutated vowel they had had in Old English:
old - elder - eldest
long - lenger - lengest
strong - stregner -strengest
Some preserve former suppletivity, and their degrees of comparison look like this:
good - bettre - best
evil (bad) - werse - werst
muchel - more — most, mest
litel - lasse — lest
Some adjectives, especially of foreign origin, are found in a form that came into wider usage only later, that is, they may be associated with the adverb moore/most
Adjectives
greatest inflectional losses; totally uninflected by end of ME period; loss of case, gender, and number distinctions
distinction strong/weak lost; causes in loss of unstressed endings, rising use of definite and indefinite articles
comparative OE -ra > ME -re, then -er (by metathesis), superlative OE -ost, -est > ME -est; beginnings of periphrastic comparison (French influence): swetter/more swete, more swetter, moste clennest; more and moste used as intensifiers
