COMPARATIVES AND SUPERLATIVES

WHAT IS AN ADJECTIVE?

Adjectives accompany nouns and give you information about people, animals or things.

EX: The red car. The big house. The cat is black.Red, big and black are adjectives.

They make our writing and speaking more descriptive and interesting.

WHAT IS AN ADJECTIVE?

Adjectives can be placed before or after the noun they are describing.

EX: The pretty girl came to our group. The girl in our group is pretty.

Adjectives never use plural (-s) and they don’t have a different masculine and feminine form.

EX: The green ball / The green ballsThe tall girl / The tall boy

ADJECTIVE ORDER

Adjectives can be used to describe: size (big), colour (black), shape (round), sound (quiet), feelings (hungry)…

But when we use several adjectives to describe a noun we should follow a fixed order: opinion + size + age + shape + colour + origin +

material + purpose

EX: A beautiful small new squared red French leather hand bag

We use the comparative adjectives to compare 2 things: people, objects, animals…

There are 3 different ways to compare things: - Superiority- Equality- Inferiority

COMPARATIVE ADJECTIVES

Form: less…(than)We use the same form with short and long adjectives

This chair is less comfortable than this armchair

COMPARATIVE OF INFERIORITY

Form: as…asWe use the same form with short and long adjectives

This elephant is as big as that elephant

COMPARATIVE OF EQUALITY

COMPARATIVE OF SUPERIORITYRules: One-syllable adjectives:- We normally add –er- Adjectives ending in –e add –r- Adjectives ending in vowel + consonant = double

the consonant + –er

The turtle is slower than the rabbit

COMPARATIVE OF SUPERIORITYRules: Two-syllable adjectives:- We normally add more before the adjective- When the adjective ends in –y, we drop the y

and add -ier

This man is happier than that man

COMPARATIVE OF SUPERIORITYRules: Three-syllable-or-more adjectives:- We add more before the adjective

The lion is more dangerous than the sheep

Comparatives are often used on their own if it is clear what or who is being compared. If you want to specify what you are comparing, you can do this using than followed by the noun you are comparing.

Mary is tallerMary is taller than Sarah After “than” we can also use an object

pronoun or a subject pronoun + a verb.She is older than me / than I am.

COMPARATIVE ADJECTIVES

We use the superlative adjectives to compare 3 or more things: people, objects, animals…

We use it to say which is the biggest, most beautiful… in a group

SUPERLATIVE ADJECTIVES

SUPERLATIVERules: One-syllable adjectives:- We normally add –est- Adjectives ending in –e add –st- Adjectives ending in vowel + consonant = double

the consonant + –est

The turtle is the slowest animal

SUPERLATIVERules: Two-syllable adjectives:- We normally add most before the adjective- When the adjective ends in –y, we drop the y

and add -iest

This man is the happiest in the world

SUPERLATIVERules: Three-syllable-or-more adjectives:- We add the most before the adjective

The lion is one of the most dangerous animals in the world

Superlatives are often used on their own if it is clear what or who is being compared. If you want to specify what you are comparing, you can do this with a noun or phrase beginning with in or of.

She is the youngest

She is the youngest child

She is the youngest of the children

She is the youngest in the class

We normally use the before a superlative.The last question is the most difficult.

SUPERLATIVE ADJECTIVES

IRREGULAR ADJECTIVES

AdjectiveAdjective ComparativeComparative SuperlativeSuperlative

GoodGood Better Better The bestThe best

Bad Bad WorseWorse The WorstThe Worst

Far Far FurtherFurther The furthestThe furthest

There are adjectives that don’t follow the norm.

We use comparative and superlative adverbs to compare actions:

He drives more slowly than me Some adverbs have the same form as an

adjective. They add –er / -est, e.g.

earlier, fastest, harder, highest… Many adverbs are an adjective + ly. They form

the comparative and superlative with more / most, e.g.

more easily, most carefully, more slowly…

COMPARISON OF ADVERBS

IRREGULAR FORMS

Some adverbs have irregular forms:

well badly far

better best worse worst further furthest

Let’s practise!Use the words given to compare the following

pictures.

FRUIT

FRIES

CHOCOLATEHEALTHYEXPENSIVESWEETTASTYFATTENING

DIFFICULTEASYBEAUTIFULFAST

SPAINCANADA

JAMAICA

COLDHOTLARGEPOPULARPOPULATED

IRONING

CLEANING

COOKING

BORINGUSEFULPOPULARBADTIME CONSUMING

BIKE

SUV

ELECTRIC CAR

CHEAPSLOWSMALLECO-FRIENDLYCOMFORTABLECONTAMINANT

AMUSINGPOPULARDANGEROUSHEALTHYEXPENSIVE

ICE SKATING

AMERICAN FOOTBALL

FOOTBALL

SNOWBOARDING

TOKYO

CORDOBA

MAUI

COSMOPOLITANNOISYPOLLUTED QUIETCROWDED