Hi, today we will do a quick review on
comparative and superlative adjectives. Let's look at the comparative first. Imagine that I have to choose
between two universities, University A and University B. I chose some features that are important
to me when I choose a school. We have student population, tuition, distance from home,
and iBT TOEFL score minimum. Hm, looking at this chart,
in terms of student population, A is smaller than B,
or B is bigger than A. I like a school with less students. So, so far, University A is better. Next, tuition,
how much it will cost every year. Wow, look at those prices. I cannot afford A. It is more expensive than B. In other words B is cheaper than A. It seems that B is better. After this I will look at how far
these schools are from my home. I don't like driving and
there is a lot of traffic where I live. Wow, it seems A is farther than B. I like that B is closer. Lastly, I have to think
about my TOEFL score. I don't have a high score. It seems that the TOEFL score
requirement for A is higher than B. Since B's is requirement is lower,
maybe B will accept me. Overall, B seems like a better school for
me. Let's review the comparative. We use the comparative when we
compare two things or two people. In my case, I compared two schools. For adjectives with one syllable and some adjectives with two syllables,
you add an to the adjective. Big becomes bigger. Spicy becomes spicier. Some two syllable words are special. You would add more or
less to the adjective. So careful becomes more careful or
less careful. If there are three or more syllables, you would also add more or
less to the adjective. For example, interesting. It becomes more interesting or
less interesting. Finally, this is how you form
a basic sentence pattern. X, be verb comparative adjective than Y. I have provided two examples. University A is smaller than University B. University B is cheaper than University A. Okay, some of you are thinking, well what happens when I want
to compare more than two things? Good question. Let's add one more school to our chart,
University C. Hm, now that I look at C and
compare it to A and B, I can say that school C is the smallest
school with 6,400 students. But the tuition my gosh C is the most
expensive of the three universities For distance, A is still the farthest
school and B is the closest. Lastly, B still has the lowest
TOEFL score minimum. It seems that B is still the best for me. Now you probably noticed that all the adjectives
change from to est. This is the superlative. It is used when we compare three or
more things. The rules for
superlatives are similar to comparatives. Let's review this chart. For superlatives, if adjectives are one or two syllables,
you just add est to the end. For some two syllable adjectives or
three or more syllable adjectives you would use most plus the adjective or
least plus the adjective. Finally when we want to make
a sentence with a superlative, we do not use then,
we would say X, be verb, the, superlative adjective. It is very important to use the definite
article the, before the superlative. And there's one more thing. Yes, there are such things
as irregular adjectives. Good and bad. Instead of adding est, more, or less,
good becomes better and best. Bad becomes worse and worst. This is why you heard me say
that B is better than A. When I compare two universities, but B is also still the best when
I compared three universities. One more example is far. The comparative becomes farther and
the superlative becomes farthest. I hope this review was
helpful in reminding you of the differences between comparative and
superlative adjectives.
