Adjectives And Adverbs Of Comparison

Adjectives and Adverbs of Comparison

When you are comparing two or more things, adjectives and adverbs are useful. You use the comparative form of an adjective or adverb to show the difference between two things. You use the superlative form of an adjective or adverb to show how one thing differs from two or more things.

One-syllable adjectives and adverbs

Most adjectives and adverbs of only one syllable form their comparative and superlative forms as follows: ■ Comparative: Add –er than to compare two things. ■ Superlative: Add the –est to compare three or more things.

Adjective Adverb Base word form: old fast Comparative: older than faster than Superlative: the oldest the fastest

Examples: John is twenty years old. Bill is eighteen years old. Tom is twenty-two years old.

John is older than Bill. Tom is the oldest in the family.

Tom ran two miles in fifteen minutes. Bill ran two miles in sixteen minutes. John ran two miles in twelve minutes.

Tom ran faster than Bill. John ran the fastest in the race.

Exercise 1: Comparative and Superlative Forms Instructions: Fill in the following blanks with (a) the comparative and (b) the superlative forms of the underlined words. 1. Yesterday was hot in Chicago. a. It was ______the day before. b. It was ______day so far this summer. 2. The history test was hard. a. It was ______the last test. b. It was ______test this semester. 3. The climate here is warm.

1 a. It is ______the climate in Mexico City. b. In fact, it is ______climate in the world. 4. My mother is a very wise woman. a. Of course, she is ______my father. b. But the truth is, my grandfather is ______person in the family. 5. Ching is learning English fast. a. He is learning it ______his brother. b. But he isn’t ______learner in his class.

Adjectives and adverbs of two or more syllables.

Most adjectives and adverbs of two or more syllables from their comparative and superlative forms as follows:

 Comparative: more/less + adjective/adverb than  Superlative: the most/least + adjective/adverb

Adjective Adverb Base word form interesting carefully Comparative more/less interesting than more/less carefully than Superlative the most/least interesting the most/ least carefully Examples:

 The president is a famous person.  He is more famous than the vice president.  He is the most famous person in the United States.

2 Exceptions

Two-syllable words ending in –y, -le, -er, and –ow, and the adjective friendly (friendlier, friendliest) form their comparative and superlative forms more like one- syllable adjectives and adverbs. -y -le -er -ow Base word form: easy gentle clever narrow Comparative easier gentler cleverer narrower Superlative the easiest the gentlest the cleverest the narrowest

Exercise 2: Rewrite the sentence comparing the subject to the person in parentheses>

1. David is tall. (John) 2. John is short. (David) 3. John is old. (David) 4. David is tall. (Robert) 5. Mary is young. (Ann) 6. Ann is old. (Mary) 7. Ann is short. (Mary) 8. David is young. (Ann) 9. Mary is tall. (Ann) 10. February is short. (March) 11. (Can You Guess??) Robert, Sam and Tom are members of a club. Tom is younger than Sam. Robert is 8. Sam is 2 years older than Robert. How old is Tom?

3 Adjective Order

Exercise 3: Instructions: Describe the differences between the subjects. Use all the words in parentheses. Write at least 3 sentences for each exercise.

1. your best friend and you (tall, old, smart, serious, funny, good driver, bad cook, hard worker)

2. a dog and a cat (friendly, independent, ferocious, intelligent, fast, expensive)

4 Exercise 4

Instructions: Answer these questions using an adjective of your choice.

1. What is the strangest fruit or vegetable from in country? What does it taste like? What does it look like? (Use "taste" and "look like" in your answer.)

2. Who is your favorite friend? What does he look like? (Use "look" in your answer.)

3. What is your favorite sport? How do you feel when you play that sport?

4. What career do you plan to have? How do people in that career seem to enjoy it? (use "seem" in your answer.)

5. Does this class seem hard?

Websites for more practice

Warm-up with this self-test. Choose the correct answer in head and then click to see if you are right.

Warm-up with comparative and superlative Adjectives

Here is a quiz on choosing either the comparative or superlative adjective. See the answer after you select.

Comparative and Superlative Adjectives