Comparative and superlatives

1. Prepared by MohdKamal Bin Abd Aziz English Proficiency for Academic Purposes Lecturer School of Human Sciences 0173878720 kamal.aziz@cybernetics.edu.my Comparative and superlatives

2. Use of Comparative Adjectives • We use comparative adjectives when talking about 2 things (not 3 or 10 or 1,000,000 things, only 2 things). • Often, the comparative adjective is followed by "than". • Look at these examples: • John is 1m80. He is tall. But Chris is 1m85. He is tallerthan John. • America is big. But Russia is bigger. • I want to have a more powerful computer. • Is French more difficult than English?

3. If we talk about the two planets Earth and Mars, we can compare them as shown in the table below:

4. Although we use comparative adjectives when talking about two things (not three or more things), in fact one or both of the things may be a group of things.Mt Everest is higher than all other mountains. • Here, we are talking about hundreds of mountains, but we are still comparing one thing (Mt Everest) to one other thing (all other mountains).

5. Formation of Comparative Adjectives • There are two ways to make or form a comparative adjective: • short adjectives: add "-er" • long adjectives: use "more"

6. Formation of Comparative Adjectives

7. Formation of Comparative Adjectives

8. Formation of Comparative Adjectives With some 2-syllable adjectives, we can use '-er' or 'more':quiet → quieter/more quiet • clever → cleverer/more clever • narrow → narrower/more narrow • simple → simpler/more simple

9. Exception The following adjectives have irregular forms: • good → better • well (healthy) → better • bad → worse • far → farther/further

10. Superlative Adjectives • A superlative adjective expresses the extreme or highest degree of a quality. • We use a superlative adjective to describe the extreme quality of one thing in a group of things.

11. In the example below, "biggest" is the superlative form of the adjective "big": A B C A is the biggest.

12. Formation of Superlative Adjectives • As with comparative adjectives, there are two ways to form a superlative adjective: • short adjectives: add "-est" • long adjectives: use "most" • We also usually add 'the' at the beginning.

13. Formation of Superlative Adjectives

14. Formation of Superlative Adjectives

15. Formation of Superlative Adjectives With some 2-syllable adjectives, we can use '-est' or 'most':quiet → the quietest/most quiet • clever → the cleverest/most clever • narrow → the narrowest/most narrow • simple → the simplest/most simple

16. Exception The following adjectives have irregular forms: • good → the best • bad → the worst • far → the furthest

17. Use of Superlative Adjectives • We use a superlative adjective to describe one thing in a group of three or more things. Look at these examples: • John is 1m75. David is 1m80. Chris is 1m85. Chris is the tallest. • Canada, China and Russia are big countries. But Russia is the biggest. • Mount Everest is the highest mountain in the world.