COMPARATIVES &

SUPERLATIVES
Grammar Weeks 3 & 4

FALL 202210

LSC-0209
Comparatives
Look at these sentences. They include to be + comparative + than

Small cars are slower than big cars.

Sky-diving is more dangerous

than football.

1. What do you add to make a comparative?

2. What happens to the long adjective dangerous?
3. What word comes after the comparative?
4. Look at the examples and complete the table. Be careful with the spelling.

Type of adjective adjective comparative + than

Normal short shorter than
tall
Ends in e nice nicer than
rare
Ends in a consonant/vowel big bigger than
(a, e, i, o, u) /consonant fat
Ends in y happy happier than
lucky
Long beautiful more beautiful than
independent
Ends in -ing boring more boring than
tiring
Irregular (you have to learn good better [at something] than
these) bad worse [at something] than
far further [from somewhere] than
5. There is one mistake in each sentence. Find and correct each sentence.

a. The college is more big than my high school.

b. Chinese people are badder at English than Thai people.
c. White tigers is rarer than lions.
d. I think that watching tennis is boringer than watching football.

e. People with a good education are luckier other people.

f. In my opinion, Japanese cars are gooder than American cars.
Exercise 2

Complete these sentences with to be (am/is/are) + comparative + than

1. Travelling by plane ____________________ travelling by car. (interesting)

2. Fast food ________________________________ restaurant food. (cheap)

3. Very poor people _________________________ rich people. (thin)
4. England _______________________________________ Egypt. (wet)
5. Brazil _____________________________ America. (far)

6. The pyramids in Egypt ______________________ the Taj Mahal. (amazing)

7. I _________________________ (bad) at studying __________ my brother.

3
Superlatives
Superlatives identify the ‘highest’ or ‘lowest’ in a group, for example:

The Burj Khalifa is the tallest tower in

the UAE.

The most boring subject is maths.

Exercise 1

Underline the verb to be + the + superlative adjective in the sentences.

1. Is it the biggest office?
2. We aren’t the most important people in the college.
3. I am the best at Arabic in the class.
l same rules as comparatives.
Write superlatives in 1 – 7 below. Be careful with spelling.
Type of adjective adjective superlative

Normal short the shortest

tall

Ends in e nice the nicest

rare
Ends in in consonant/vowel big the biggest
(a, e, i, o, u) /consonant fat
Ends in y happy the happiest
lucky
Long beautiful the most beautiful
independent
 Ends in -ing boring the most boring
tiring
Irregular (you have to learn good
these) bad the worst
far the furthest

Complete these sentences with to be (am/is/are) + the + superlative

1. Travelling by plane ____________________ way to travel. (fast)

2. Fast food ________________________________ type of food. (cheap)

3. My brother _________________________ student in his class. (smart)
4. July and August __________________________ months in the UAE. (hot)
5. The water is Masafi ______________________ in the UAE – it has not
chemicals. (good)

6. This exercise _________________________ activity in the book. (difficult)

Practice
For questions 1 – 6, choose the correct answer a – d:

1 That is _________ 2 It ________ phone. 3 Who _____ the most

movie I have ever seen. intelligent student?
a the better a is worst a was
b best b the b are
c the baddest c is
goodest d c worsest d do
the best d is the worst
4 It is____________. 5 Asia has the _______ 6 His parents are ____in
 population. the country.
a the most expensive car. a big a the richer
b the best books. b bigger b the richest
c biggest house. c biggest c richest
d the older city. d most d richer
big