7. Paco is older than his sister (degree of the adjectives)

Reflexiona

 Paco is a twenty-one-year-old student. Although he is young, he is already a millionaire, thanks to the lottery. However, there are many other aspects about him that you don’t know yet.

   Paco is in his Last Year of a degree in World History at the University of Extremadura in Cáceres. He is a brilliant student, in fact, the best in his class and he really likes studying the subjects related to his degree, but he finds learning English difficult. But is he dedicating enough time to it? Luckily, yes he is and his English is gradually improving.

Paco is 1,80 metres tall. He is the tallest in his family. He is brown-haired and quite skinny. He likes sports, basketball and tennis above all. He also likes cinema and pop music. He always wears jeans and t-shirts and he is very fond of leisure wear.

Paco’s family is quite big: his mother, Isabel, his father, Antonio, a sister and a brother. Antonio is unemployed at the moment. He's 57 years old. Isabel is a teacher and is 2 years younger than her husband. Francisco’s family live in Cáceres. They all live happily in a very comfortable terraced house not too far from the Old Quarter of the city. Paco also has grandparents and a lot of cousins living in different cities and towns in Spain.

Imagen de elaboración propia

Paco's sister, Sonia, also lives with her parents and she is the youngest in the family- she's only 16.She is in her First Year of Upper Secondary (Bachillerato) in a secondary school in town. She studies hard at school. Her favourite subject is English. She is always dreaming about travelling to the USA.

Does Paco’s whole family live in the same city? No, they don’t. His brother Carlos doesn’t live in Cáceres. In fact, he lives in Madrid and he works as an engineer. He is six years older than Paco. He sometimes visits his parents and sister at weekends. He can’t visit them too often because he has other important matters on his mind: his girlfriend Susan, an American girl from, who is studying a Master of Arts in Madrid

¿Recuerdas este texto que leímos en la introducción de este tema? Ahora fíjate en las expresiones que aparecen en negrita, ¿sabes qué tienen de particular?

Importante

Comparative and superlative adjectives

 

Comparative adjectives

Comparative adjectives compare one person or thing with another and enable us to say whether a person or thing has more or less of a particular quality:

Josh is taller than his sister.

I’m more interested in music than sport.

Big cars that use a lot of petrol are less popular now than twenty years ago.

Imagen de thepeachpeddler en Flickr Licencia CC

Superlative adjectives

Superlative adjectives describe one person or thing as having more of a quality than all other people or things in a group:

The ‘Silver Arrow’ will be the fastest train in the world when it is built.

The most frightening film I’ve ever seen was Alfred Hitchcock’s ‘Psycho’.

What is the least expensive way of travelling in Japan?

Comparative or superlative?

A comparative compares a person or thing with another person or thing. A superlative compares a person or thing with the whole group of which that person or thing is a member:

Joe’s older than Mike. (comparing one person with another)

Sheila is the youngest girl in the family. (comparing one person with the whole group she belongs to)

When there are just two members in a group, traditionally, we use the comparative. However, in informal situations people often use the superlative:

Who is younger, Rowan or Tony? (traditional usage)

Jan and Barbara are both tall, but Jan’s the tallest. (more informal)

Comprueba lo aprendido

Pregunta

My house is _______ yours.

Respuestas

Bigger than

The biggest

Retroalimentación

Pregunta

Who is ________ woman in the world?

Respuestas

Richer than

The richest

Retroalimentación

Pregunta

He was __________ in his class.

Respuestas

Cleverer than

The cleverest

Retroalimentación

Pregunta

A holiday by the sea is ______________ a holiday in the mountains.

Respuestas

Better than

The best

Retroalimentación

Importante

Comparative and superlative adjectives: form

 

One-syllable adjectives (bigcoldhotlongniceold,tall)

 

To form the comparative, we use the -er suffix with adjectives of one syllable:

It’s colder today than yesterday.

It was a longer holiday than the one we had last year.

Sasha is older than Mark.

 

To form the superlative, we use the -est suffix with adjectives of one syllable. We normally use the before a superlative adjective:

I think that’s the biggest apple I’ve ever seen!

At one time, the Empire State building in New York was the tallestbuilding in the world.

They have three boys. Richard is the oldest and Simon is the youngest.

 

 

Spelling of comparatives and superlatives with one-syllable adjectives

 

type of adjective

comparative

superlative

most adjectives

add -ercheaperricher,smalleryounger

add -estcheapestrichest,smallestyoungest

adjectives ending in -e

add -rfinernicerrarer

add -stfinestnicest,rarest

adjectives with one vowel + one consonant:

double the final consonant and add -er:biggerhotter, thinner

double the final consonant and add -estbiggest,hottestthinnest

 

 

One-syllable adjectives which are irregular

 

Some one-syllable adjectives have irregular comparative and superlative forms:

1 - bad, worse, worst far, farther/further, farthest/furthest

2 - good, better, bestold, older/elder, oldest/eldest

The morning flight is better than the afternoon one.

His elder sister works for the government.

Olivia is Denise’s best friend.

I think that was the worst film I’ve ever seen!

Pluto is the furthest planet from the sun in our solar system.

Warning:

We do not use more or most together with an -er or -est ending:

They emigrate because they are looking for a better life.

Not: … a more better life

The beach at Marmaris is one of the biggest in Turkey.

Not: … the most biggest …

 

Two-syllable adjectives

 

Two-syllable adjectives ending in -y change y to i and take the -er and -estendings:

busybusierbusiest

happyhappierhappiest

easyeasiereasiest

funnyfunnierfunniest

 

We were busier last week than this week.

Are you happier now that you’ve changed your job?

That was the easiest exam I’ve ever taken.

 

 

Some other two-syllable adjectives (especially those ending in an unstressed vowel sound) can also take the -er and -est endings:

clever, cleverercleverest

quiet, quieterquietest

narrow, narrowernarrowest

simple, simplersimplest

 

I’ve always thought that Donald was cleverer than his brother.

This new bed is narrower than the old one.

The guest bedroom is the quietest room in the house because it overlooks the garden.

We don’t normally use the -er and -est endings with two-syllable adjectives ending in -ful. Instead, we use more and most/least:

This dictionary is more useful than the one we had before.

Not: This dictionary is usefuller …

You’ll have to try to be more careful in future.

The most useful tool in the kitchen is a good sharp knife.

Not: The usefulest tool in the kitchen …

This is the least harmful chemical in terms of the environment.

 

 

Longer adjectives

 

Adjectives of three or more syllables form the comparative with more/lessand the superlative with most/least:

The second lecture was more interesting than the first.

Not: The second lecture was interestinger …

That way of calculating the figures seems less complicated to me.

London is the most popular tourist destination in England.

Not: London is the popularest …

If you are going as a group, the least expensive option is to rent an apartment or villa.

Para saber más

Typical errors

 

  • A comparative adjective is followed by than, not that or as:

The next hotel we tried was more expensive than the first one.

Not: … more expensive that the first one … or …more expensive as the first one …

  • After a superlative adjective, we don’t normally use of before a singular name of a place or group:

She was the tallest girl in the team.

Not: She was the tallest girl of the team.

  • We use the superlative, not the comparative, when we compare more than two people or things:

Which is the city’s biggest hotel?

Not: … bigger hotel

Here you have some links where you can do more activities about this topic:

- Activity 1

- Activity 2

- Activity 3

Para saber más

Here you have two videos in Spanish to help you understand the concepts previously explained:

 

Vídeo de Bluebloc Notes (Aprender Inglés) en Youtube Vídeo de Alejo Lopera Inglés en Youtube