Comparision

COMPARISONS
1. Short, Long and Special adjectives/ adverbs:
a/ Short adjectives: are adjectives with
- one syllable: long , short, big, hot, fat ..
- two syllables with the endings: - y. E.g: happy, lazy, busy, .......
( Short adverbs: are adverbs with one syllable: hard, late, soon, ... and the adverb “early”
b/ Long adjectives: Two syllables up, and those ended with –ed.
E.g: careful, beautiful, hard-working, careless, complicated, bored…
* Note: Adjectives ended with -er, -le, -ow, and -et, are considered both short and long ones.
E.g: clever, simple, narrow, quiet, …
( Long adverbs: are adverbs with two syllables up EXCEPT FOR early and badly
c/ Special adjectives/ adverbs: are those whose comparative pattern are different from that of Short and Long adjectives/ adverbs. This group consists of: good, bad, well, ill, old, far (adj), and well, badly, far, little, much (adv)
2. Degrees of comparisons:
1. Equal degree



Unequal degree

 ( S1 + be/ V + as + adj / adv + as + S2 + aux
E.g: He is as old as my father.
He drives as carefully as I (do).

( S1 + negative V + as/so + adj/adv + as + S2 + aux
E.g: He is not as/so old as my father.
He doesn’t drive as/so carefully as I (do).


2. Comparatives
 ( S1 + be/ V + adj/ adv (short) + er + than + S2 + aux
E.g: You are thinner than he (is).
He runs faster than I (do).

( S1 + V + more + adj/ adv (long) + than + S2 + aux
E.g: He is more intelligent than I (am).
He drives more carefully than I (do).


3. Superlatives
 ( S + be/V + the + adj/ adv (short) + est
E.g: Nam is the tallest student in my class.
Cheetah runs (the) fastest in the world.

( S + be/ V + the most + adj/ adv(long)
E.g: He is the most intelligent student in my class.
Of the students in my class, Nam speaks English (the) most fluently.


4. Double comparatives
 ( The adj/ adv (comparative) + S + V, the + adj/ adv (comparative) + S + V (càng… càng…)
E.g: The more beautiful she is, the more modest she becomes.
The harder he studies, the wiser he becomes.

( More and more + adj/ adv (long)
Adj/ adv (short) + er and adj (short) + er: càng ngày càng ...
E.g: Life in the city is more and more stressful.
They work harder and harder.


5. Less & Least comparisons
 ( S1 + be/ V + less + adj/ adv + than + S2
( S + be/ V + the least adj/ adv
E.g: This film is less interesting than the one I saw yesterday.
He works least effectively in our group.


6. Comparions with nouns
 ( S1 + V + as many/ much + N as S2 + aux
S1 + negative V as/ so few/ little + N as S2 + aux
E.g He earns as much money as I do.
I don’t have as/ so many friends as he does.
( S1 + V + more/ fewer/ less + N + than S2 + aux
E.g He has collected more stamps than I have.
I have collected fewer stamps than he has.
( S + V + most/ fewest/ least + N
E.g I have least free time in my family.

* Note: 1/ We use equal degree when we want to emphasize how many times this object is more than that one.
E.g: Her husband is twice as old as she (is).
2/ We use emphatic words like: much, a lot, far, slightly, a bit, no, any, ... before comparatives.
E.g: Her husband is much/ far/ a lot/... older than her.

Special adjectives/ adverbs:

No