Comparative Adjectives

Hook

“This phone is cheap, but that one is cheaper.” “Is Cairo bigger than London?” When you shop, travel or give opinions, you compare things all the time. English has two simple ways to do it: -er and more.

Notice

  • My car is bigger than yours.
  • Today is colder than yesterday.
  • This book is better than the film.
  • This phone is more expensive than that one.
  • My sister is taller than me.
  • Trains are faster than buses.

Which adjectives take -er, and which take more? Count the syllables.

Rule

AdjectiveRuleExamples
short (1 syllable)+ ercold → colder, tall → taller, cheap → cheaper
ending in -e+ rnice → nicer, large → larger
one vowel + one consonantdouble + erbig → bigger, hot → hotter, thin → thinner
2 syllables ending in -yy → ierhappy → happier, easy → easier, busy → busier
long (2+ syllables)more + adjectivemore expensive, more beautiful, more interesting
irregular—good → better, bad → worse, far → further

Use than before the second thing: X is bigger than Y. After than, use me / him / her in everyday English: She’s older than me.

Watch Out

  • ✗ more big → ✓ bigger
  • ✗ expensiver → ✓ more expensive
  • ✗ more better → ✓ better
  • ✗ She is taller that me. → ✓ She is taller than me.
  • ✗ gooder → ✓ better (irregular)

Practice

  1. Complete: This bag is ___ (big) than that one.
  2. Complete: This film is ___ (interesting) than that one.
  3. Complete: Today is ___ (good) than yesterday.
  4. Comparative of happy?
  5. Comparative of bad?
  6. Correct it: “My house is more small than yours.”
  7. Complete: “A plane is faster ___ a car.”
  8. Compare two cities you know.
Show the answers
  1. bigger
  2. more interesting
  3. better
  4. happier
  5. worse
  6. My house is smaller than yours.
  7. than
  8. … is bigger / more expensive than … (your own answer)

Your Turn

Compare five pairs of things in your life: two cities, two people in your family, two foods, two sports and two seasons. Use at least two -er and two more comparatives.

Connect

Our Grammar Quiz has A1 questions on comparatives.

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Fix mistakes like “more big” in our Error Correction tool.

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CEFR A1 — Writing / Spoken Production: I can use simple comparisons to describe people, places and things.

Azizul Hakim
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