COMPARATIVE and SUPERLATIVE
We use comparative adjectives to compare two people, animals or things.
*New York is bigger than Madrid
*Sally is more beautiful than Pat
We use superlative adjectives to compare more than two people, animals or things
• Brazil is the largest country in South America * Money isn’t the most important thing in life FORM
*(ONE SYLLABLE) :
COMPARATIVE - Adjective + -er + than - John is taller than Charles
SUPERLATIVE - the + adjective + -est - John is the tallest boy in the class
* (TWO or MORE SYLLABLES)
COMPARATIVE - More + adjective + than - Mary is more intelligent than Jane SUPERLATIVE - the
most + adjective - Mary is the most intelligent girl in the class
* (IRREGULAR)
good(bueno)/well(bien) - better (mejor) - the best (el mejor)
bad (malo) - worse (peor) - the worst (el peor)
far (lejos) - farther / further (más lejos) - the farthest / the furthest (el más lejano) little(poco)
- less (menos) - the least (el menor, lo menos) much(mucho) - more (más)
- the most (el más) many(muchos) - more (más) - the most (los más)
SPELLING
*Adjectives of one syllable that end in -e: add -r / -st
large - larger - the largest
nice - nicer - the nicest
• Adjectives that end in a vowel + consonants -t, -d, -g, -m, -n : double the consonant and add -er/-est
fat - fatter - the fattest
slim – slimmer - the slimmest
big - bigger - the biggest
• Adjectives of two syllables that end in -y:
change the -y to an -i and add -er / -est
busy – busier - the busiest
easy – easier - the easiest
early - earlier – the earliest
*Long words(2 / 3 / 4 syllables): add more / the most
modern - more modern - the most modern
beautiful - more beautiful - the most beautiful
expensive - more expensive - the most expensive
Write sentences using the comparative form of the adjectives.
0 Mary / tall / her sister
Mary is taller than her sister
1 Mount Everest / high / Mont Blanc
2 Maths / easy / Physics
3 A cheetah / fast / a tiger
4 The book / interesting / the film
5 The south of Spain / dry / the north
Complete the sentences. Use the superlative form of the words in the list.
beautiful | hot | scary | dry | tall | delicious
0 In Cyprus, August is the hottest month.
1 Chocolate is the food in the world.
2 The Burj Khalifa in Dubai is the building in the world.
3 I think snakes are the world’s animals.
4 The Atacama Desert is the world’s place.
5 These are the flowers in my garden.
Circle the correct answer A, B or C.
A crocodile 0 B eat all kinds of animals, but an elephant is much
1. In fact, it can kill a rhinoceros. So an elephant is 2__________ than a crocodile.
How fast 3______________ run? It isn’t really 4__________________ animal in the world. It runs 5_____________ than a koala and it can
move at five kilometres per hour.
0 A is B can C is good at
1 A strong B stronger C strongest
2 A most dangerous B dangerouser C more dangerous
3 A a tortoise can B can a tortoise C is a tortoise
4 A the most slow B more slow C the slowest
5A more good B most good C better
Write the sentences with the comparative form of the adjectives.
0 John / intelligent / Tom John is more intelligent than Tom.
1 Antarctica / cold / Greece
2 I think spring / colourful / winter
3 My father’s tablet / good / mine
4 Edinburgh / far from London / Cardiff
5 Austria / big / Switzerland
Complete the sentences with the superlative form of the adjectives.
0 The cheetah is the fastest (fast) animal in the world. 1 Ushuaia in South America is the________ (far) city from where I live.
2 The________ (expensive) hotels are in Dubai. 3 July is the______ (sunny) month of the year. 4 That was the________
(bad) experience of my life. 5 Where’s the_______ (cold) place in the world?
9Complete the sentences with the comparative or superlative form of the adjectives. 0 This is the best (good) holiday
of the year. It’s better (good) than last year. 1 I think this is the________ (bad) film of the season. Last year the films
were (interesting). 2 The___________ (dry) place in the world isn’t the Sahara desert. The Atacama desert in Chile is
(dry) than the Sahara. 3 Chinese is__________ (difficult) than English, but Arabic is the_________________ (difficult)
language in the world. 4 The (fast)___________________ train is the Chinese Shanghai Maglev. It’s (fast) than the Italian
Frecciarossa. 5 My granddad the___________ (old) person in my family and my baby sister is the____________ (young).
