English Grammar: Modifying Comparatives - a lot, far more, much, a little, slightly

Hi, James from EngVid, Stranger Tractors.

This book is slightly different than what I would normally read.

Some people might say it's much different than what you probably read.

So what are we going to talk about today?

We're going to talk about comparatives, but not comparatives that you're used to doing,

which is "more than" or "er", yeah?

You know, when you say, "This is more than I thought it would be," comparing it to two

things, or with "er," "This is bigger," or "This is smaller," right?

Let's say when you add the "er" to small words, and then the "more than," you know, for other

things.

So, what are we doing?

I like to talk about the degrees of comparatives, because not everything is "more than" or "bigger

than," because you don't really have an idea of what the difference is.

So why don't we look at things to modify?

So we're going to do comparatives, but we're going to look at degrees of comparatives,

how we can use a couple of words to give more of an idea of how big and how small.

Ready?

Let's go.

So, let's start off with the big one, because "big" is positive.

Let's go there.

Now, if you have something is big, and you say, "This is... he is bigger than," or "This

is more expensive than," then I'm going to say, "Well, how much?"

Now, if I use the word "a lot," then I know it's by "a lot," by comparison.

So over here, this means "a lot," it means another, like, "much."

"He is a lot bigger than his brother."

So, if his brother is this tall, then he would be that tall.

That's a lot bigger, okay?

Another one we can look at is "far."

Now, "far," as you know from distance, when you say "far," it's a long way away.

So this one's easy to remember, because all you have to think of is "far" is long, "far"

is "a lot more" or "much more."

So we have it here, so I'll put "by far," so we can put it's "a lot" or it's "much,"

to a greater degree, so greater difference.

Okay?

Now, how do we use it?

Up here, when I said "a lot," you put "a lot" then the comparative, so "I am a" -- sorry,

make it easier to see -- "lot," right?

"I am" -- you know what?

I think it's the drugs, slowed me down, my brain's slow, too -- "a lot," right?

And then we put the comparative, "bigger."

"I am a lot bigger than I used to be."

This belly is fat.

Christmas time, eating food, okay?

So "I am a lot bigger," "a lot" then the comparative, okay?

You don't say "bigger a lot," it doesn't make any sense in English, so it's easy.

If you want to say there's a big difference, you put "a lot" before the comparative, and

then someone knows there's much of a difference, a big difference.

Now, how about "far," okay?

Well, "far," as I said, also means "a lot" because it's a big distance, and when we look

here at "a lot" or "much," we can say, in this case, "far more," and then we put the

adjective.

"He is far more happy," or "happier," "He's far happier," far more, here.

And down here, we put the comparative, "by far."

"He is larger by far."

So in this case, how we have comparative, it's very similar, right?

So "He is," and then we'd say, "happier," there's your comparative, "by far," similar,

right?

Actually, almost reverse, here, beginning, here, end.

You get the picture.

You can see it, right?

So the order here is comparative, then "by the far," while up here, we have "a lot,"

then the comparative.

Cool?

All right.

Now, this one, you'll notice we have adjectives that we add to it, a little different.

So let's look over here.

We said "bigger," okay?

We've done "bigger."

We've done "a lot."

How do we do "smaller," "smaller"?

How do we do "smaller"?

Well, what we're going to do by going "smaller" is we're going to use "a little" and "slightly,"

okay?

So what do they mean?

What do they mean?

Yeah.

Get over here.

Okay.

Well, we're going to take "a little," okay?

We've got this here.

Get out of your way so you can see.

So "a little."

Now, "little" means, literally, little difference.

So we're going to say "a little," and then we put the comparative at the end.

So you would say, "The wine is a little."

Once again, I want to show you, so I'm going to use a different color, okay?

"The wine is," and then "scusi," "little."

Now I'm almost out of room, so I'm going to just go underneath, okay?

"A little more expensive."

See that?

We have "a little," and then we have "more expensive."

So we actually use our degree at the beginning, and then we put our comparative, okay?

Now, let's work with "slightly."

That sentence or that word is slightly wrong.

Watch carefully.

"Slightly" means "a little," right?

We said "slightly" means "a little."

You needed help.

So it was "slightly" wrong, okay?

So now that we know "slightly" means "a little," why don't we look at the sentence, all right?

So "slightly."

What's a good example?

Well, this isn't exactly right, because there's a lot of difference here, right?

He's a lot bigger than this one, but let's just pretend for a second that "slightest

snake," or "sill the snake," as for Sylvester, is just a little smaller.

We might say, "Sill is," and we'll use the word now, "slightly smaller than Mr.

E."

And we notice "slightly" then plus the comparative, okay?

So we look at it, we've used four different things to change, not just to say something

is bigger, something is smaller, but to give degrees of how much bigger, how much smaller.

Cool, huh?

Just a couple of words, and you can improve your English greatly.

So a quick review, when we say "a lot," we mean there's much of a difference, right?

A lot.

When we say "far," there are two things for "far," remember this.

We have "far more," which means "greater than," and then "by far," and if you just remember

that "far" means a big distance, easy to remember, right?

Now let's go over here.

When we want to talk about "small," we say "a little," which is obvious.

"A little" means "un poquito," if you speak Spanish, or "poco," right?

Or "kitschy," Hungarian, "kitschy," very cute.

Anything else?

No, no other languages.

Just "a little," but we put it before the comparative.

"A little happier," "a little bigger," "small."

And "slightly," also the same thing.

And don't make my mistake, make sure you put an "ly" to show it's an adverb, right?

"Slightly smaller," right?

"Slightly smaller."

So, thank you very much for coming.

You have been at www.engvid.com studying comparatives, and I don't think you'll find anything a lot

better than us.

I think, by far, you should be happy with the work you've learned.

In fact, you might feel a little more confident with your English, and slightly more attractive

to the ladies.

Yeah, I'm going now, sorry, www.engvid.com, bye.