Adjectives: comparative structures

 

Comparative adjectives

 

When we make comparisons, we often use comparative adjectives:

 

One-syllable adjectives

• England is smaller than Australia.
• Australia is larger / bigger than England.

Usually, we add ‘-er’ – so ‘small’ becomes ‘smaller’.

 

If the adjective ends in ‘e’, we just add ‘-r’ – so ‘large’ becomes ‘larger’.

 

If the adjective has a ‘consonant-vowel-consonant’ pattern, we double the final consonant and then add ‘-er’. ‘Big’ becomes ‘bigger’ (and ‘hot’ becomes ‘hotter’).

 

Longer adjectives

• – José: Spanish is easier than Arabic.
• – Ahmed: No!  Spanish is more difficult than Arabic!

 

With two-syllable adjectives ending in ‘y’, there is a spelling change. ‘Easy’ becomes ‘easier’ (and ‘busy’ becomes ‘busier’).

 

With other adjectives which have two or more syllables, we use ‘more + base adjective’ – so ‘difficult’ becomes ‘more difficult’ (and ‘interesting’ becomes ‘more interesting’).

 

We can also use ‘less + base adjective’:

• Arabic is less difficult than Spanish!

 

Irregular adjectives

 

Some common adjectives have irregular comparative forms:

‘good’ becomes ‘better’, ‘bad’ becomes ‘worse’ and ‘far’ becomes ‘further’ or ‘farther’.

 

Big differences

• Australia is much bigger than England.
• Australia is a lot bigger than England.
• Australia is far bigger than England.

(We don’t say ‘Australia is very bigger than England’.)

 

Small differences

• Portugal is a bit bigger than Austria.
• Portugal is slightly bigger than Austria.
• Portugal is a little (bit) bigger than Austria.

 

(Not) as… as…

 

We can also use (not) as + adjective + as:

• England is not as big as Australia.

(This means the same thing as ‘Australia is bigger than England’.)

 

We use the positive form to say that two things are equal:

• Today is as hot as yesterday.

(The two days were the same temperature.)

 

(Not) the same as… / Different from / to…

 

• Life in England is not the same as life in Australia.

(Life in England is different from / to life in Australia).

 

Like / As

 

We can use ‘like’ to talk about things which are similar or the same:

• It’s raining again.  I hate weather like this.
• My sisters are both teachers like me.
• He can swim like a fish.

 

We use like + noun / pronoun.  We can’t use ‘as’ in this way:

• I hate weather as this.
• My sisters are both teachers as me.
• He can swim as a fish.

 

Sometimes we can use either ‘like’ or ‘as’:

• Everything went just as I had planned.
• Everything went just like I had planned.

We use as + subject + verb.

 

More and more…

 

We can use ‘double comparatives’ to talk about changes:

• I must stop eating so much chocolate.  I’m getting fatter and fatter.
• Apartments in the city centre have become more and more expensive.

 

The + comparative… the + comparative…

 

We can also use comparatives to talk about things which change together:

• The hotter the weather (is), the less energetic I feel.
• The more you practise, the easier it is.

We use the + comparative + subject + verb.