TÚ - WARM UP - KAHOOT

COMPARATIVE AND SUPERLATIVE ADJECTIVES

We use comparative adjectives to show how the qualities of two people or things can be
compared and superlative adjectives to show how there or more can be compared
 Superlatives add the … est, and a preposition such as of or in with any noun phrase:
E.g. Jane is the youngest (of the three sisters)
Bill is the tallest (in the class)
 We can omit the :
E.g. Jane is (the) youngest
 Usually, we do not state what is compared because it is obvious:
E.g. A lot of people have become richer in the last few years (= richer than before)
Their youngest child is Jane (= the parents have at least three children)
ONE-SYLLABLE ADJECTIVES
Most one-syllable adjectives form the comparative by adding -er and the superlative by adding -
est:
 Those ending -ed cannot take -er , -est . We use more / most :
E.g. more bored, (the) most bored
more worried, (the) most worried
TWO-SYLLABLES ADJECTIVES
Two-syllable adjectives can form the comparative and superlative with either -er and -est or more
and most
clever common handsome
hollow narrow pleasant
shallow stupid tired …
TWO-SYLLABLES ADJECTIVES ENDING IN -y
These form the comparative and superlative by changing the -y into -i and adding -er and -est
adjective comparative Superlative
angry angrier (the) angriest
busy busier (the) busiest
happy happier (the) happiest

The comparative of dry can take two forms:

dry drier driest (more usual)
dry dryer driest
IRREGULAR ADJECTIVES (phần này cho lớp coi thôi Tú khỏi đọc)
adjective comparative superlative
good better (the) best
bad worse (the) worst
little less (the) least
much more (the) most
many more (the) most
far farther (the) furthest
old older (the) oldest
elder (the) eldest

FURTHER / FURTHEST, FARTHER / FARTHEST

We use further / furthest and farther / farthest to talk about distances:
E.g. We’d better not go any further / farther today.
Australia is the furthest / farthest I’ve ever been
 Further can also mean “more” or “extra”. We cannot use farther in these expressions:
E.g. Stop playing inside before you do any further damage (= additional damage)
For further information, please write to the above address (= more information)
She went on to further education (= education after secondary school)
 We use elder / eldest for members of our family, but not the age of things:
E.g. I get on well with my elder sister
 We do not use than with elder, and elder cannot be used immediately after a verb:
E.g. ( x) He is elder than me.
(v) He is older than me.
LINH - FAR ; MUCH ; A LOT
To add emphasis to a comparison, we can use far, much or a lot with the comparative adjective.
There is very little difference in meaning, although far is often stronger:
E.g. Bill is much richer than Tom.
Bill is a lot richer than Tom.
Bill is far richer than Tom.
Other words for strong emphasis: even, a great deal (formal), considerably,…
For weaker emphasis: a little, slightly, a bit (informal), somewhat (formal),…

 Most one-syllable adjectives can also form the comparative and superlative with more or most
instead of -er or -est. We usually use this form for emphasis in spoken English:
E.g.: You should be more proud of the things you’ve already achieved. (= prouder)

I think this is the one she is the most proud of. (= proudest)

 We can make a superlative weaker or stronger in the same way.

Stronger: by far, easily (informal) + superlative

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.)

 Weaker: one of, some of + superlative:

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.

E.g.: Of the students in his class, he is the cleverest.

AS … AS …
 We use as … as … to say two things are similar or equal in some way
as + adjective + as or 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
(the)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)
HUY - 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?
HUY - 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

as + noun (phrase) She works as a doctor

as + noun (phrase) As your teacher, I advise you to work harder.
as + noun (phrase) Don’t use your shirt as a towel!
 As + verb phrase means ‘as thoroughly as’:
No one knows these islands as I do.
 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)

Repeating comparatives
We can repeat the comparative adjective to say that something is changing (increasing or
decreasing) all the time, usually with the Present Continuous:
form Meaning/use Example
Comparative adj + and + changing all the time She was getting more and more irritated
comparative adj
the + comparative adj + verb + two things change at the
The older I get, the wiser I become
the + comparative adj + verb same time The less intelligent they are, the more
difficult they will find the test.
the + comparative adj + the + used in common phrases the bigger the better
comparative adj the sooner the better
Contrastive Comparison
When we contrast two related qualities, we always use more (not -er):
(X) I‘m sadder than disappointed.
(✓) I’m more sad than disappointed.

E.g.: Her eyes are more green than grey.

 We can also use not so much …as or rather than:

E.g.: I’m not so much disappointed as sad.

Her eyes are green rather than grey.

Adverbs of two or more syllables

We use superlative adverbs with -est in a few common phrase
E.g.: The soonest I can send it is Friday.
The earliest I can come is three o’clock
Bill ran (the) slowest of all and came last
LONG - Irregular adverbs
Some adverbs have irregular forms of comparison:
adverb Comparative Superlative
well better best
badly worse worst
 much more most
little less least
a lot more most
far further / farther furthest / farthest
Bessie plays the piano well. Bessie plays the piano better than Mary. Bessie played the piano best
of all and won first prize.
Terry did badly in the test. Terry did worse in the test than Tom.
 We rarely use worst as an adverb but it would be possible to say:
Terry performed the worst in the class
 We can use as + adverb + as to show how something is done in comparison with some other
way of doing it :
I ate breakfast as quickly as I could and left
Bessie didn’t play as well as she usually does.
EXERCISE 1
EXERCISE 2
EXERCISE 3