Comparative and superlatives - PowerPoint Presentation

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.