Comparatives and Superlatives.

Comparatives

We use comparatives to compare one or more things to other things. To compare two or more things we use the word than between them.

• My brother is taller than me, but I am older than him.
• This restaurant is more expensive than the other one.
• It’s hotter today than it was yesterday.

Regular Comparative Adjectives

To change regular adjectives into comparative adjectives just ad -er at the end of the word. This table gives some examples of common regular comparative adjectives.

Adjective	Comparative adjective	Example sentence with comparative form
small	smaller	The moon is smaller than the Earth.
tall	taller	My brother is taller than me.
poor	poorer	We are poorer than our neighbours.
rich	richer	Our neighbours are richer than us.
hard	harder	This exam is harder than the last exam.
soft	softer	Cotton is softer than stone.

Regular Comparative Adjectives with Doubled Consonants

Not all comparative adjectives are regular. Some need a little modification.

Sometimes we need to double a consonant;

Adjective	Comparative adjective	Example sentence with irregular comparative form with doubled consonant
big	bigger	Spain is bigger than England.
thin	thinner	Mark is thinner than Tom.
fat	fatter	Tom is fatter than Mark.
hot	hotter	Spain is hotter than England.
wet	wetter	England is wetter than Spain.
red	redder	The English tourists are redder than the locals.
flat	flatter	Holland is flatter than Spain.

Regular Comparative Adjectives with -ier

Sometimes we remove -y and add -ier

Adjective	Comparative adjective	Example sentence with irregular comparative form with -ier
Happy	Happier	I am happier on holiday than I am at work.
greedy	greedier	My son is greedier than my daughter, he always eats too much!
Easy	easier	Elementary English is easier than advanced English.
funny	funnier	This comedy is finnier than the news.
heavy	heavier	stones are heavier than cotton.
busy	busier	Mondays are busier than Sundays.

When to use “More… “

To make comparatives from longer adjectives, adjectives ending in -ed or adverbs with – ly use “more / less ___”

beautiful	more beautiful	Barcelona is more beautiful in the summer than in the winter.
dangerous	more dangerous	Mosquitos are more dangerous than most flies.
interesting	more interesting	This book is more interesting than the last one I read.
slowly	more slowly	I drive more slowly than Tom.
easily	more easily	Some people are more easily offended than others.
carefully	more carefully	He writes more carefully now than he did last year.
tired	more tired	I’m more tired today than I was yesterday.
bored	more bored	The kids were more bored in class than in the playground.

Irregular Comparatives

Sometimes the comparative is completely irregular;

Adjetive	Irregular comparative adjective	Example sentence using irregular comparative adjective.
good	better	This film is better than the last one.
bad	worse	The last film was worse than this one.
far	further	I have to travel further to work than my sister.

Modifying Comparative Adjectives

We can modify comparative adjectives to give more detail about how big or small the difference is.

• He is much older than his brother.
• We are nowhere near as rich as you.
• She is far less interested in the film than he is.
• This bag is a little heavier than the other one.
• The job is significantly harder than we anticipated.
• They are far cheaper than the competitors.

….as …as

Another way of comparing things uses a form “as [adjective / adverb] as”.

• I’m not as young as I used to be!
• This hotel isn’t as nice as the other hotel.
• This food is as good as the food in that expensive restaurant.
• She doesn’t play as aggressively as he does.”

This form is usually negative, to say that things are not the same.

I am not as tall as my brother, he is taller than me

If you use this form without “not” it means that the things compared are the same.

it is as hot as it was yesterday, the temperature is exactly the same.

TRAP: Be careful not to use the comparative adjective form with this form. Many students say “I am as older as my bother”. This is not correct, just use the normal adjective or adverb form.

Continuous Change with Comparatives.

To express that a change is continuous we can use a form where we repeat the adjective or adverb.

If I am blowing up a balloon, as it gradually gets bigger I could say that…

The balloon is getting bigger and bigger.

When dealing with the “more...” form of a comparative, we can just repeat the “more” part and not the adjective.

If I go to a restaurant three times and each time, the same food costs more money, I can say that…

This restaurant is getting more and more expensive.

Here are some more examples of this form

• This problem is getting bigger and bigger.
• the festival is more and more popular every year.
• This film gets better and better.
• The situation is getting worse and worse.
• The days are getting longer and longer.
• My patience is getting thinner and thinner.

The… the…

When we are expressing that a change in one thing causes or is related to a change in another thing, we can use the form “The [comparative adjective / adverb]… the [comparative adjective / adverb]…”

If I am paid by the hour. If I work more hours, I will earn more money. I could express this as…

The  more I work, the more I earn.

Note the word order here! Here are some more examples of this form.

• The less I sleep, the more tired I feel.
• The more news I read, the more depressed I am.
• The more I buy, the less I save.
• The older I get, the grumpier I become.
• The less I go out, the paler I look.
• The more music I make, the more ideas I have.
• The more time I spend with him, the more I understand his perspective.
• The more I read about it the less enthusiastic I am.
• The more time I spend working on this tune the more I dislike it.
• The less I sleep, the worse I feel.