Comparatives

Hello, boys and girls! My name is Bobby.

And my name is Tobby. This is our friend Mobby.

Welcome to our lesson.

Today we have a guest.

It’s our classmate Liam.

Hi, guys! I came to you, because I need your help!

Oh, okay. What kind of help do you need?

Well… Listen to my story and you’ll understand everything.

Two days ago my dad and I decided to go to the sports store.

When we came there, I saw a cool bike and asked my dad to buy that bike for me.

It wasn’t really expensive, so he agreed to do that. After we left the sports store, I saw my friends near the church. I wanted to boast about my new bike, so I came closer to them and we started talking.

Hi, guys!

Hi, Liam. What’s that?

Oh, it’s my new bike.

Where did you get it?

My dad bought it for me. Look! It’s big than your bike, Jamie! And it’s nice than your bike, Frank!

No, it’s not! Wait! Did you say “big than” and “nice than”?

Yes, I did!

Ha-ha.

May I give you some advice, Liam?

Sure!

Instead of boasting, you’d better go home and learn English rules!

Ha-ha. Yeah, right! Let’s go, Frank!

Guys, what are you going to do?

We are going to ride our small and ugly bikes somewhere else. Bye, Liam.

After that they went away.

Guys, everyone knows that the three of you are very smart. So tell me, please, what’s wrong with my friends? Why were they so angry?

Well, Liam, we see two problems here!

Really?

Yes. The first problem is that you were boasting. And it’s a really bad quality for a person.

And the second problem is that you don’t know how to compare things.

Oh, that’s not good! What should I do then?

Well… It will be easy to solve the first problem. You just need to stop boasting and saying bad words about your friends’ stuff.

Oh, I agree! I was wrong in this situation. But what should I do with the second problem?

Liam, your friends told you to learn the rule, so that’s what we are going to do now!

Yeah! We will tell you everything you need to know about comparatives.

Great! Thank you, boys! I really appreciate that!

You’re welcome!

All right! Let’s start.

So today in the lesson we will:

talk about comparative adjectives;

learn how to compare two things;

And

put the knowledge into practice.

First of all, you need to know that comparative adjectives or comparatives are used to compare differences between the two objects they modify.

To compare these objects, we can use the following construction:

In the first place we put the first noun.

After that we use the verb.

Then we need to put the comparative adjective.

In the fourth place we use the word “than”, which is translated as “чем”.

And after that we put the second noun.

For example:

Kate’s garage is larger than Megan’s house.

Winter nights are darker than summer nights.

Or

Kyle’s dog runs faster than Jim's dog.

Now let’s answer the question: “How can we form comparatives?”.

To do that we must know the following rules.

Let’s start with the first and the main rule: To form comparative adjectives, we need to add the ending -er to the adjective.

For example:

Tall – taller

Высокий – выше

Small – smaller

Маленький – меньше

Old – older

Старый – старше

High – higher

Высокий - выше

The second rule: If the adjective ends with one consonant and one vowel, the last consonant must be doubled. After that we need to add the ending –er.

For example:

Big – bigger

Большой – больше

Thin – thinner

Худой – худее

Fat – fatter

Толстый – толще

Sad – sadder

Грустный - грустнее

The third rule: If the adjective ends with the letter “e”, we need to add the ending –r instead of –er.

For example:

Nice – nicer

Красивый – красивее

Large – larger

Большой – больше

Wise – wiser

Мудрый – мудрее

Close – closer

Близкий – ближе

And the last rule: If the adjective ends with the letter “y”, we need to change it to the letter “i”. Then we must add the ending –er.

For example:

Happy – happier

Счастливый – счастливее

Angry – angrier

Злой – злее

Heavy – heavier

Тяжёлый – тяжелее

Noisy – noisier

Шумный – шумнее

Now let’s talk about the exceptions. We have to memorize them, because they don’t follow the rules.

And the exceptions are:

Good – better

Хороший – лучше

Bad – worse

Плохой – хуже

Little – less

Маленький - меньше

Liam, we’ve told you everything you need to know about the comparative adjectives.

Now we would like to check your knowledge.

Sure. No problem.

Your task is to look at the pictures and make the sentences.

For example:

On these pictures we can see a whale and a dolphin.

The adjective is “big”.

And the sentence is “The whale is bigger than the dolphin”.

Now look at the following pictures. Here we can see a giraffe and a zebra.

The adjective is “tall”.

Let’s check the right answer.

The giraffe is taller than the zebra.

On these pictures we see an elephant and a hedgehog. The adjective is “fat”.

Check yourselves.

The elephant is fatter than the hedgehog.

Here we can see a bear and a fox. The adjective is “thin”.

Let’s check.

The fox is thinner than the bear.

On these pictures we see a mouse and a pig. The adjective is “small”.

Check yourselves.

The mouse is smaller than the pig.

Here we can see a lion and a horse. The adjective is “angry”.

Let’s check the right answer.

The lion is angrier than the horse.

And

On these pictures we see a hippo and a wolf. The adjective is “heavy”.

Check yourselves.

The hippo is heavier than the wolf.

Well done, Liam!

Now you know how to compare two things.

Yes, that’s right! Guys, thank you so much for your help!

Oh, it’s our pleasure, Liam!

Boys, now I have to run. I need to find my friends and apologize to them.

Oh, okay. See you at school, Liam.

See you.

That’s all for today, our dear friends!

We hope you liked the lesson!

See you soon, boys and girls.