Paco travels to South Africa: New York is bigger than Johannesburg
In this topic we will learn to use the degrees of adjectives studied in topic 4 to make comparative and superlative sentences, that is, to compare people, things, animals or places. We will also compare the degree of adjectives to those of adverbs and we'll study deeply two more vowel sounds in English. These sentences will be really useful to improve your English. Come on, let's begin!
Listening activity
As was mentioned in topic 4, the comparative and superlative degrees of adjectives are used to compare two or more people, animals, objects or places. That being so, once we know how to form the degrees of adjectives we must learn to make comparisons.
As you have noticed, the video above is divided into two well-separated parts: Comparatives and Superlatives. Let's study comparatives first.
As in most languages, in English there are three different ways of comparing two people, animals, objects or places. You can say both of them share the quality at the same degree: Equality; or one is superior in quality to the other: Superiority; or one is inferior in quality to the other: Inferiority.
That being so, there are three comparative sentences in English. Click on the pictures below to learn how they are formed.
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Further knowledge
If you click here, you will be able to read further information on comparative sentences and do some interesting exercises. And by clicking below, you can improve your knowledge on the subject by doing more activities.
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Activity 2 | Activity 3 |
Self-assessmentWatch the video again and answer the following questions. Perhaps it's a good idea that you read the questions first.
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| By swisscan. C. Commons |
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| By David. C. Commons |
1. How much older is Keavy than Adele?
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a. Keavy is forty minutes older than Adele. | |
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b. Keavy is twenty minutes older than Adele.
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a. New York is probably three times bigger than San Francisco.
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b. New York is probably four times bigger than San Francisco.
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a. Raphael doesn't cook as well as Maureen. | |
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b. Maureen cooks worse than Raphael.
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a. Michael thinks Washington is the most beautiful city in the USA.
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b. Michael thinks New York is the most beautiful city in the USA.
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| By coolmonfrere. C. Commons |
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a. Mary thinks the most beautiful country in the world is Greece.
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b. Mary thinks the most beautiful country in the world is France.
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a. The biggest city in Scotland is Dundee. | |
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b. The biggest city in Scotland is Glasgow.
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Further knowledge
Do you remember him? She helps you with the pronunciation of words, phrases and sentences. Ask him how to pronounce them! Come back whenever you need him!