comparative and superlative adjectives and adverbs; comparing nouns
CONTEXT LISTENING
You are going to hear someone talking about these three magazines.
Which of the following words do you think she uses?
Hairdresser | music | teenagers | homework | posters | holidays | sales | reviews | stadium | journalists | sport | adverts
Now listen to the dialogue and do the listening exercises below
GRAMMAR
Comparative and superlative adjectives
Comparing two people or things:
Hits! is smaller than Buzz.
Comparing more than two people or things:
Buzz is the most expensive (magazine).
Hits! is the least expensive (magazine).
We make comparative and superlative adjectives like this:
Some adjectives are irregular:
good => better => the best
bad => worse => the worst,
far => further => the furthest
His latest song is better than his last one. He’s the best singer in the band.
This magazine is worse than that one. It’s the worst magazine I’ve ever read.
(not) as... as and less ... than
We also use (not) as... as and less ... than to compare things:
Buzz isn’t as popular as Hits!
or Buzz is less popular than Hits! (= Hits! is more popular than Buzz.)
As (.…) as…
When two things are the same, we say:
Buzz is as popular as Hits!
Summary
Comparative and superlative adverbs
Adverbs
Sometimes we compare how we do something:
You can read Hits! more easily than Buzz.
The Smash journalists write better than some national journalists.
Adverbs ending in -ly form comparatives and superlatives like this:
Other adverbs form comparatives and superlatives like short adjectives:
hard => harder => hardest
My sister works harder than I do but Alex works the hardest.
Some adverbs are irregular:
well=>better => the best
badly=>worse=>the worst
I play the guitar well. Rob plays the guitar better than me. Rob plays lots of instruments but he plays the guitar the best.
NOTE! We don’t use superlative adverbs very often.
Comparing nouns
We use more/the most to compare both countable and uncountable nouns:
Smash has more reviews than Hits!
Hits! has the most adverts.
Smash contains the most information.
Countable nouns:
We use fewer / the fewest to compare countable nouns:
There are fewer adverts in Smash than in Hits!
Hits! has the fewest posters.
Unountable nouns:
We use less / the least to compare uncountable nouns:
There’s less rubbish in Smash than in Buzz.
Smash contains the least rubbish.
Grammar Practice
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