Professional Documents
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Comparative and Superlative Adjectives
Comparative and Superlative Adjectives
Comparative and Superlative Adjectives
I think this is the one she is the most proud of. (= the proudest)
E.g.: He’s by far the cleverest student in his class. (= He is much cleverer than the others.)
She’s easily the best programmer in the company. (informal) (= She is much better than the
others.)
E.g.: New York is one of the largest cities in the world. (= There may be some larger.)
When we refer to a place or group we use ‘in’ not ‘of’ after superlatives.
(X) New York is one of the largest cities of the world.
(✓) ..in the world.
***But in formal English we can put an ‘of’ phrase at the beginning of the sentence, before the
superlative.
AS … AS …
We use as … as … to say two things are similar or equal in some way
To be + as + adjective + as or Ordinary verbs + as + adverb + as
We can omit the second part, as …, if the comparison is clear:
E.g. John didn’t do as well as Helen in the exam
John didn’t do as well (as her* / as she did)
*This is considered informal
We use as … as, but not as … so, in comparisons:
E.g. Tea isn’t as strong so coffee
Tea isn’t as strong as coffee
As + many /much / little / few + as
We use as + many / much / little / few + as in comparisons without a. We cannot use more / less /
several etc:
E.g. Bill doesn’t have as much money as Anne
The same (as)
We always use the in comparisons with same:
E.g. Their car is the same (as ours)
Peter is the same age (as George)
We can emphasise the same using exactly:
E.g. Their car is exactly the same (as yours)
Peter is exactly the same age (as George)
So … as …
In negative statements we can use so … as instead of as … as:
E.g. Computers are not quite as / so expensive as they were
In positive sentences and in questions we cannot use so … as:
E.g. She worked so hard as she could to finish early
She worked as hard as she could to finish early
Could you try and get here so quickly as you can, please?
Could you try and get here as quickly as you can, please?
Like and as
We use like and as to say things are similar. We use like to make a comparison, and as to describe
a position or function:
form Example
like + noun He runs like the wind
like + pronoun My brother is just like me.
like + noun Like the Greeks, Italians use a lot of olive oil
We can also describe something by comparing it with something similar without using like or
as, this is known as a ‘metaphor’:
E.g.: We hope the new treaty will form a bridge between our two nations. (a bridge = metaphor for
a link)