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Comparative Adjectives

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    Teacher: Chris
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    Comparative adjectives: one syllable adjectives

    When comparing two items in English we obviously use adjectives so we change the form of the adjective when comparing items in English.

     

    Normally, one syllable adjective will take er as part of the following construction:

     

    • My wife is stronger than me 

     

    Adjectives ending in a consonant (a letter that isn't a,e,i,o,u) add the same letter again in the comparative form. For example:

     

    • All my new friends are thinner than my old friends

     

    Comparative adjectives: two syllable adjectives

    Two syllable adjectives follow both the one syllable and 3+ syllable patterns (see below) so often they have to be remembered.

     

    • He is more stupid than I thought

    • She is crazier than I thought

     

    Adjectives ending in -y are modified by adding an -i to the -er pattern like this:

     

    • My Bank manager is happier than my children

     

    Comparative adjectives: three or more syllable adjectives

    Longer adjectives use more' in their construction and the form of the adjective used does not change. For example:

     

    • English is sometimes more difficult than I thought

    • My smartphone is more annoying than my mother

    • Her new boyfriend is more handsome than your new boyfriend

     

    Using irregular comparative forms

    We will look at irregular adjectives which change their form when used in comparative sentences:

     

    Adjective Irregular comparative form Example
    Good better My language is better than English!
    Bad worse British weather is worse than Spanish weather
    Ill worse I woke up this morning feeling worse than usual
    Far farther/further I moved house, now I live further/farther than before

     

    Warning!

     

    Some 2 syllable adjectives need to be remembered:

    • Clever - cleverer (NOT more clever) My cat is cleverer than my 18 year old son
    • Quiet - quieter (NOT more quiet) This party is quieter than it should be
    • Untidy - untidier (NOT untidier) My life is untidier than beforenow that she has gone

     

    Describing bigger differences 

    To add more detail to your comparative sentences, you could describe bigger differences by using a lot/much/far' like this:

     

    • The Chinese economy is far bigger than The British economy

    • Hippies are much lazier than hipsters

    • German people are a lot more organized than the rest of the world 

     

     

    Describing smaller differences

    To describe small differences between things we can usea little/a little bit/slightly' in the following ways:

     

    • The Earth is slightly closer to the Sun than Mars

    • The world is a little bit hotter than last year

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