JUAN JOSÉ

 

COMPARATIVE ADJECTIVES 

As its name says, comparative adjectives work to make comparisons between objects, people, processes, characteristics and, in general, the things we see or know in our daily life. For instance, in business contexts, comparative adjectives help to compare decisions and processes that may be convenient or non-convenient for an enterprise or company.

HOW TO FORM COMPARATIVE ADJECTIVES?

There are two ways to form regular comparative adjectives:

1.       If the adjective is a short word (it has one syllable), we use -er.

2.       If the adjective is a longer word (two or more syllables), we use “more”.

Compare the examples:

Short words	Long words
Cheap         ------>    Cheaper	Expensive ---> More expensive
Fast      ----------->      Faster	Serious    ----->  More serious

IRREGULAR ADJECTIVES

There are irregular forms for some adjectives. Check out some of them:

ADJECTIVE	IRREGULAR FORM
Bad	Worse
Big	Bigger
Far	Further
Good	Better
Ugly	Uglier
Happy	Happier

 USE OF “THAN”

To make comparisons using comparative adjectives, we use “than” after a comparative.

 

Example: I think going by train is better than going by car because it is faster.

ACTIVITY

1.       1. You will have to watch a TED Talk which has its own transcription. In the transcription you must fill the blank spaces with the comparative adjectives you will hear from the video. Once you fill all the gaps, press the “calculate the score” button and share your results.

2.      2.  Once you have finished the first part, write at least 5 sentences in which you make comparisons using the comparative adjectives you heard from the video or forming them based on the explanation given.

3.       3. Time to write! Imagine you are selling a product. Write a short paragraph introducing it and use comparisons to make it look better!

Note: This little activity aims A2/B1 English as L2 learners. I thought of non-native speakers, particularly eleventh grade students, whose school has a business emphasis for last grades, which is why the explanation comprises an example of the function that comparative adjective may have in a business situation, so it can result more meaningful for them and their educative context. The multimodal text I chose is a video which I expect will help them to recognize more comparative adjectives and get familiar with their pronunciation, as well as the listening and use of them. In addition, I expect they can connect at least a little bit with the thematic of the TED Talk.