LESSON 5 Comparatives and Superlatives

We use comparatives to emphasize certain characteristics of things, persons or animals, like:

Comparative of equality, to say that something is similar in a way, we use the structure “as + adjective + as” example:

This car is as comfortable as that car.

Sandy is as generous as Jack.

Exercise: Use comparative of equality to compare the following people or things. Give your personal opinion.

1. Being a chef and being a DJ ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

2. Cancun and Puebla _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

3. Roller skating and scuba diving ________________________________________________________________________________________________________

4. Johnny Depp and Leonardo Di Caprio _________________________________________________________________________________________________

5. Italian food and Mexican food ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Comparative of inequality:

To say that something is not similar, we use the structure “not + as + adjective + as” example:

Being a florist is not as risk as being a chemist.

In my opinion, math is not as easy as history.

Exercise: Use comparative of inequality to compare the following people or things. Give your personal opinion.

1. Michael Phelps and Usain Bolt __________________________________________________________________________________________________________

2. The Hunger Games movie and Harry Potter movies ___________________________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

3. Going bowling and going to the movies _________________________________________________________________________________________________

4. Audi cars and Mercedes cars ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________

5. Video games and Board games ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________

To say that something has a big or small characteristic between two things, we use the structure “adjective +
than” example
My house is bigger than Mike’s house.

Chocolate ice cream is more delicious than strawberry ice cream.

To form comparative adjectives, use –er, more or less + adjective, + than.

Comparatives
Adjectives ending in
One- syllable Adjectives with two or more
consonant + vowel + consonant Adjectives ending in Y
adjectives syllables
(except w, x, and y)
Tall – taller Big – bigger Heavy – heavier Exciting – more exciting
Beautiful – less beautiful
Irregular comparatives: good – better, bad – worse, far – further, fun – more fun
Exercise: Write the comparative form of the following adjectives.

1. close _________________________ 2. interesting ___________________________________ 3. pretty ___________________________________

4. hot _________________________ 5. young ___________________________________ 6. honest ___________________________________
7. bad _________________________ 8. colorful ___________________________________ 9. fat ___________________________________
Complete the sentences with the correct comparative form of the adjective in parenthesis.

1. Dogs are ________________________________________________ (intelligent) the rabbits.

2. Lucy is ______________________________________________ (old) Ellie.

3. Russia is ____________________________________________ (large) the UK.

4. My Latin class is ________________________________________ (boring) my English class.

5. In the UK, the streets are generally ______________________________________________ (narrow) in the USA.

6. London is _____________________________________________ (busy) Glasgow.

7. Julie is _______________________________________________ (quiet) her sister.

8. Amanda is ____________________________________________________ (ambitious) her classmates.

9. My garden is a lot _________________________________________________ (colorful) this park.

10. His house is a bit __________________________________________________ (comfortable) a hotel.

We use the superlative form to show that one thing or person in a group has got more or less of a quality than all the other in
the same group, for example;

The Big Bang theory is the funniest TV show.

Mexico is the most beautiful country.

Colombia is the least secure city in Latin-American.

To form superlative adjectives, use the –est , most or least

Superlatives
Adjectives ending in
One- syllable Adjectives with two or more
consonant + vowel + consonant Adjectives ending in Y
Adjectives syllables
(except w, x, and y)
Low – lowest Sad – saddest Pretty – prettiest Comfortable – most comfortable
Expensive – least expensive
Irregular comparatives: good – best, bad – worst, far – further, fun – most fun

Practice, Complete the sentences with the correct superlative form of the adjective in parenthesis.

1. Who is ________________________________________ (tall) person in your family?

2. My mum is _____________________________________ (good) cook in the world.

3. December is _______________________________________ (cold) month of the year in my country.

4. What's _________________________________________________________ (dangerous) animal in the world?

5. Ethan is _______________________________________________ (happy) boy that I know.

6. Where are _______________________________________________ (nice) beaches in your country?

7. She bought ________________________________________ (big) cake in the shop.

8. Who is _______________________________________________ (famous) singer in your country?

Ex : This exercise is very difficult ! => It's the most difficult exercise!

9. It was a very happy day: it was _________________________________________ day in my life!

10. It's a very good book: it is _______________________________________ book I have ever read.

11. He's a very famous singer: he's certainly __________________________________________ singer in the country.

12. I know it was a bad mistake: it was ____________________________________________ mistake of my life.

13. She's a very pretty girl: she's ____________________________________________ girl of the class.

14. Jack is a boring man: he's ____________________________________________ man I know!

Comparatives and Superlatives

READING

A) What do you think speed dating is?

B) Read the article and see if you are right.

Speed dating is a formalized match-making process. Men and women meet each other
in a series of mini-dates usually lasting from three to eight minutes.

At the end of the event, participants submit a list of people they would like to meet again,
and real dates are set up. This is a very popular way of meeting a member of the opposite
sex in the US.

C) Read the comments made after a speed dating event. Circle the positive comments.

1. I like Peter. He’s really handsome, more intelligent, and more interesting than the other guys I talked to.

2. Gillian seems nice but she’s very shy. I’m looking for somebody more outgoing than she is.

3. Hannah’s really good looking, but she isn’t as talkative as I am. Maybe she isn’t very self-confident.

4. David has the bluest eyes, but I think he is really boring. He talks about himself all the time. He’s completely self-obsessed. In
fact, he was the most annoying guy there.

5. Karen is nice. She isn’t especially pretty, but she’s smarter and funnier than most of the other girls.

EXERCICES

A) Complete the sentences with the correct forms of the adjectives in parentheses.

1. Mila is _________________________________ (small) than Butch.

2. Dots is ________________________________ (big) of the three dogs.

3. Butch is ______________________________ (fat) than Mila.

4. Mila’s fur is ___________________________________ (long) than Butch’s fur.

5. Dots is __________________________________ (tall) of the three dogs.

6. Mila is ______________________________________________ (beautiful) than

Butch.

7. Butch is _____________________________________ (heavy) than Mila.

B) Complete the chart with the correct form of the adjective.

ADJECTIVE COMPARATIVE SUPERLATIVE

Ugly

The most hopeful

Weaker

The lowest

Thinner

More pleased

Fat

Poorer

The neatest

heavy