Prepared by Mohd Kamal Bin Abd Aziz English Proficiency for Academic Purposes Lecturer School of Human Sciences 0173878720 kamalazizcyberneticsedumy Use of Comparative Adjectives ID: 562210
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Slide1
Comparative and superlatives
Prepared by
Mohd
Kamal
Bin
Abd
Aziz
English
Proficiency for Academic Purposes
Lecturer School of Human Sciences
0173878720
kamal.aziz@cybernetics.edu.mySlide2
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
taller
than
John.
America is big. But Russia is
bigger
.
I want to have a
more powerful
computer.
Is French
more difficult
than English?Slide3
If we talk about the two planets Earth and Mars, we can compare them as shown in the table below:
Earth
Mars
Diameter (km)
12,760
6,790
Mars is
smaller
than Earth.
Distance from Sun (million km)
150
228
Mars is
more distant
from the Sun.
Length of day (hours)
24
25
A day on Mars is slightly
longer
than a day on Earth.
Moons
1
2
Mars has
more
moons than Earth.
Surface temperature (degrees
Celcius
)
22
-23
Mars is
colder
than Earth.Slide4
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).Slide5
Formation of Comparative Adjectives
There
are two ways to make or form a comparative adjective:
short
adjectives: add
"-
er
"
long
adjectives: use
"more"Slide6
Short adjectives
1-syllable adjectives
old, fast
2-syllable adjectives ending in -y
happy, easy
Normal rule:
add "-er"
old → older
Variation: if the adjective ends in -e, just add -r
late → later
Variation: if the adjective ends in consonant, vowel, consonant, double the last consonantbig → biggerVariation: if the adjective ends in -y, change the y to ihappy → happier
Formation of Comparative AdjectivesSlide7
Formation of Comparative Adjectives
Long adjectives
2-syllable adjectives not ending in -y
modern, pleasant
all adjectives of 3 or more syllables
expensive, intellectual
Normal rule:
use "more"
modern → more modern
expensive → more expensiveSlide8
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 narrowsimple → simpler/more simpleSlide9
Exception
The
following adjectives have irregular forms:
good → better
well (healthy) → better
bad → worse
far → farther/furtherSlide10
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.Slide11
In the example below, "biggest" is the superlative form of the adjective "big":
A
B
C
A
is the
biggest
.Slide12
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.Slide13
Formation of Superlative Adjectives
Short adjectives
1-syllable adjectives
old, fast
2-syllable adjectives ending in -y
happy, easy
Normal rule:
add "-
est
"
old → the oldestVariation: if the adjective ends in -e, just add -stlate → the latestVariation: if the adjective ends in consonant, vowel, consonant, double the last consonantbig → the biggestVariation: if the adjective ends in -y, change the y to i
happy → the happiestSlide14
Formation of Superlative Adjectives
Long adjectives
2-syllable adjectives not ending in -y
modern, pleasant
all adjectives of 3 or more syllables
expensive, intellectual
Normal rule:
use "most"
modern → the most modern
expensive → the most expensiveSlide15
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 simpleSlide16
Exception
The
following adjectives have irregular forms
:
good → the best
bad → the worst
far → the furthestSlide17
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.