Comparative and Superlative Adjectives in English - Comparative Adjectives - Lesson Only

all right let's get started so first today we  are going to talk about comparative adjectives  

so here in the word comparative  this comes from the word compare  

do any of you know what does it mean to compare  if i have two things what does it mean if i am  

comparing them to compare is to talk about what is  the same or different between two or more things  

so first today we're going to  look at comparative adjectives

so comparative adjectives there are actually  two ways we can use comparative adjectives  

the first is er than and so  we'd have our adjective here

and the second way is more than more  adjective than so how do we know which to use  

for example if i wanted to use the adjective  short would i say shorter than or more short than  

i would say shorter than right  what if i had a word like expensive  

would i say expensiver than or more expensive  than i would say more expensive than  

that may sound right to you but do you know why  there is a simple trick to help you remember which  

one to use and that has to do with how many  syllables are in a word so to use er then  

our adjective should have one or two syllables  more adjective than our adjectives have three or  

more syllables so what's a syllable a syllable  is how many vowel sounds we hear in a word  

and if you guys know a vowel these are certain  letters in english a e i o and u so for example  

uh let's say i have a word like banana how  many vowels do i hear in that word banana  

three what if i go back to the word expensive  how many vowels do i hear expensive also three  

what about that adjective short  well there i only hear oh short  

this can be a little confusing  though so we can use the clap test  

when you clap along as you say a word it's much  easier to hear how many syllables there are which  

we'll get some practice with in just a moment  so going back to comparative adjectives we use  

er than for adjectives with one or two syllables  and more adjective than adjectives with three  

or more syllables a quick note also so we also  use more than for adjectives that end in ed ing  

f-u-l and l-e-s-s even if they only have  two one or two syllables for example let's  

say uh i have the adjective tired tired two  syllables right i hear the i and the e tired  

but i wouldn't say tireder than i would say more  tired than because that adjective ends in ed  

and it would be the same for adjectives ending in  ing like um boring math class is more boring than  

english class ful i think english is  more useful than uh pottery or l-e-s-s um

she is not as helpless or she is  less helpless than uh her friend  

something like this so let's take a look at  some adjectives and see if we can sort them  

would we use er than or more adjective than  so we'll go through so first we have big  

big right we just hear that i big  which we can also do the clap test with  

so how many syllables big one so we would use  bigger than okay next one we have exciting  

exciting so there we again we hear three exciting  exciting so we would say more exciting than

okay we'll go through these next ones a  little quickly next we have salty salty has  

two syllables so we'd say saltier  than tasty also two syllables  

tastier than all right our next word  we have is comfortable or comfortable  

so three or four syllables depending on how  you say it so we'd say more comfortable than  

next we have smart can you hear how many syllables  smart smart one so we would say smarter than  

next we have the word helpful oh this one's  a little tricky helpful helpful two syllables  

right but would i say helpfuler than no helpful  is an adjective that ends in f-u-l so i would say  

more helpful than next we have quiet two  syllables quieter than friendly two syllables  

friendlier than our next word interesting  four syllables more interesting than  

okay next one tired two syllables right but it  ends in ed so i would say more tired than and our  

last one healthy two so healthier than so this is  an easy way to figure out do i use er than or more  

than we need to figure out how many  syllables are in these adjectives  

there are some exceptions to this rule that don't  really follow this one or two or three or more  

syllables rule the first word is good so if i'm  comparing two things would i say gooder than or  

more good than no i would say better than  i think that uh pizza is better than pasta  

how about bad would i say badder than  or more bad then no i would say worse  

than there are two more words that are common  exceptions and the first one is the word fun  

so fun one syllable but we don't say funner than  in english we say more fun than this is because  

when fun became an english word it was first  only a noun over time it became an adjective  

so because of that we still use it differently  than other adjectives and say more fun than  

famous is similar famous two syllables  but do we say famous or then here we would  

say more famous than as well for a similar  reason so be careful about these exceptions  

so let's go ahead and compare some  things let's see if we can come  

up with some sentences to compare  two things so here we have winter  

and summer so if i want to compare i can think  of some words to describe winter like cold

summer of course is hot i might say summer is fun  

so if i use this in a sentence i could say  winter is colder than summer i could say  

summer is hotter than winter or with our word  fun which remember is an exception so i don't  

say funner then i say more fun than summer is more  fun than winter how would you compare these two  

let's look at a couple more here we have a  delicious fried chicken and a delicious apple so  

some words we could use to describe them an  apple of course sweet and apple is very healthy

the fried chicken i could use words like crispy  

oily tasty right a lot of words that end  in y to describe taste so if i wanted to  

uh compare these using comparative adjectives i  could say the apple is healthier than the chicken  

or i could say something like the uh chicken is  oilier oilier than the apple we can also do less

than so it doesn't have to be a more uh let's  say uh healthier it could be less healthy  

as well right so we can do more or less when  we compare so if we had a word like expensive

i could say something like  apples are less expensive  

than uh chicken we don't have to always use  more okay let's do one more example here we have  

math class and art class so what do you  think if i put the words up here like fun

interesting how about a word like creative

difficult what do you think  which one is more difficult  

so difficult three syllables we use more difficult  than so it might be your opinion maybe you think  

math class is more difficult than art class  or maybe art is not easy for you and you think  

art class is more difficult than  math or less difficult than math

so the last thing we will look at for comparatives  is questions often when we ask questions to  

compare things we use which for example which  is more enjoyable reading or watching movies  

which is better japanese food or chinese food  so here we see the basic structure is which  

is and our adjective right our comparative  adjective better more enjoyable more expensive  

more fun uh bigger stronger taller and  then our two options blank or blank

so which is better watching a video or  having a live lesson what do you think so  

why don't you go ahead and practice using this  question structure in the chat you can ask me  

for my opinion about different things try  to do that using some comparative adjectives

okay guys next we're going to talk about  superlative adjectives so what does that  

word mean superlative this means the most the  highest amount of something and instead of using  

er than and more than we use the ist and the most  and again here is where we put our adjectives  

so just like with comparative adjectives we use  the same rule to figure out which one to use  

we use the if with adjectives that have one  to two syllables and the most with adjectives  

that have three or more syllables or  have these endings e-d-i-n-g-f-u-l  

or l-e-s-s so let's see if we can match so  first we have tall one syllable so the tallest  

boring two syllables would i say the boringest  ends in ing the most boring creamy two syllables  

the creamiest greasy two syllables same the  greasiest fried chicken is the greasiest fast food  

convenient three syllables so  i'd say the most convenient  

i think uh having a car is the  most convenient way to get around  

new one syllable the newest cheerful two  syllables but ends in f-u-l the most cheerful  

loud one syllable the loudest  busy two syllables the busiest  

here we have that word again interesting four  syllables the most interesting uh i think doing  

live streams is the most interesting because i  love to talk to you guys and see your questions  

excited three syllables and it ends in ed the  most excited and finally messy two the messiest  

so if you are ever confused about which  to use remember the same rule uh we use  

the same rule here as we do with comparatives  how many syllables do those adjectives have

and we have the same exceptions so  remember we don't say gooder than we say  

better than and likewise we don't say the  goodest or the most good we say the best  

with bad just like we would say worse than we  don't say the baddest or the most bad we say  

the worst and are two other words fun remember  we don't say funner than we say more fun than  

and likewise we don't say the funnest we say  the most fun and we don't say the famousest but  

the most famous so remember these four words  are really common exceptions to this rule all  

right let's practice using some superlatives  so here we have a lion a zebra and an elephant  

so if i want to use a superlative we're talking  about the most something so what superlative  

will start easy well what superlative could  i give to the elephant i could say something  

like where did my mouse go there it is i could  say something like the elephant is the biggest  

right i could say the lion is the smallest  in this picture or what if i wanted to  

see which one is the most terrifying the most  scary animal well i would say the lion is the most

terrifying the most scary i would not want to run  into a lion and i don't think you would either  

for the zebra maybe we could say it's the  

shyest right maybe uh not we might see  uh elephants being social right uh zebras  

maybe they just run away they're the shyest all  right next we have three people so we'll start  

with some again with some easy superlatives on  the right here we could say he is the tallest

and of course we could also talk about him  right here the shortest or from the looks of it  

the oldest

and how about our person in the middle what  superlative could we use for this person well  

i think it looks like he is ready for summer so i  would say maybe his clothes are the most summery

the most summery clothes right he's got  shorts and flip-flops looks like he's ready  

for summer so when we use superlatives  we're talking about the highest the most  

when we are asking questions with superlatives  we often use what for example what is the  

most exciting action movie or what  is the spiciest food you have eaten  

but don't forget we can use all other wh questions  as well who is the friendliest person you have met  

who is the uh most interesting person  you've met uh when is the best time  

for me to see you we can use maybe  maybe that's not the best example  

but we can use uh the other whs as well so  just like i hope you did for comparatives  

go ahead and try to write a superlative  question what is the and here if we use what  

what is the and then our superlative  adjective i'm just going to put s a

and then what it is the most exciting  action movie spiciest food you have eaten  

like this okay so try to ask me some questions all  right guys the last thing we're gonna do before i  

take your questions is see if we can figure out  what word do we use how do we know when to use  

a comparative or superlative so let's go ahead  and go through and see if we can figure it out  

okay number one nirmala is then james okay  so number one are we comparing two things  

or are we talking about the most of something  well in number one we're comparing two people  

and another clue is the word than so here  i would say nirmala is older than james  

we are comparing so we use er then okay next  one mount kinabalu is the mountain in southeast  

asia okay and number two am i comparing two  things or talking about the most of something

and number two i am not comparing  i'm only talking about this mountain  

so i would use a superlative it is  the highest notice we don't use then  

that's also a clue so you know which one to use  it is the highest mountain in southeast asia

number three she is the biology teacher we have  okay so am i comparing do we see van in there we  

do not but we do see the which means we're about  to use a superlative and good do we say goodest  

she is the best biology teacher we have  number four it is today than yesterday  

okay so are we comparing talking  about the most of something  

again we see this word van which is a clear  giveaway that we are comparing so we would  

say it is cooler today than yesterday so we are  comparing today's weather to yesterday's weather

okay number five a carpet is expensive than a rug  so here we see van and we're comparing a carpet  

and a rug a carpet is more expensive than rug  right expensive three syllables so more expensive  

number six they are the students in this  school okay so we're talking about in  

the whole school they are something  the highest the most the cleverest

okay almost finished guys is susan then her  sister so hopefully you can see by now how it's  

set up we're comparing susan and her sister and  we see that word then is susan would i say popular  

or more popular than more popular than right  popular three syllables more popular than  

number eight he is the person i know  we're using lazy we're not comparing  

so we want to use a superlative lazy two syllables  he is the laziest person i know angel falls is the  

waterfall in the world so just like we saw in  the school in the world we are talking about  

a superlative and here high would become highest  the highest waterfall in the world and last one  

before uh we take some questions this cheesecake  is delicious delicious then the chocolate cake  

so could be your opinion more delicious or less  delicious than the chocolate cake so remember the  

syllable rule that helps you choose is it or than  or more than is it the ist or the most something  

remember syllables are the way that  we can figure it out and when you're  

looking at sentences should i use a  comparative should i use a superlative  

words like then and the really  give away which one to use