Adverb or Adjective

[mundasingh123]

Could an Expert help
Gorgy is better at ironing the clothes than romy is .
I dont think "ìs " is an linking verb here . so better is an adverb or an adjective ?
This cake is better than that one.
What is better here ? an adjective or an adverb .

[Ashley@VeritasPrep]

I'd think of all of those "better"s as comparative adjectives. Think of replacing them with words that preserve the meaning:

Gorgy is more talented at ironing clothes than Romy is.

"more talented" is a comparative adjective describing Gorgy, so it stands to reason that "better" is as well.

This cake is more delicious than that one.

"more delicious" is a comparative adjective describing this cake, so "better" would seem to be too.

Contrast that with something like "Gorgy irons better than Romy does." In that case, we could replace the better with "more skillfully" -- a comparative *adverb*, so in that case, "better" would function as an adverb.