Comparative adjectives – older than, more important than, etc.

Grammar » A1 Grammar lessons and exercises » Comparative adjectives – older than, more important than, etc.
Exercises Explanation Downloads
  • Exercises: 1 2 3

    Comparative adjectives – older than, more important than, etc.

    Exercise 1

    Write the opposite of these adjectives. Use the comparative form of adjectives in the box below.
    bad – big – difficult – expensive – far – fat – happy – hot – old – short

    1 younger ⇒

    2 colder ⇒

    3 better ⇒

    4 thinner ⇒

    5 cheaper ⇒

    6 nearer ⇒

    7 sadder ⇒

    8 smaller ⇒

    9 easier ⇒

    10 taller ⇒


     

    Exercises: 1 2 3

  • Comparative adjectives

    We use more + adjective + than or adjective + -er + than to compare things or people.

    • My car is more expensive than your car. 
    • I am older than my brother. 

    In this chart, you can see when we need to use more … than or -er than and the changes in spelling.

    Grammar chart showcasing the rules for forming comparative adjectives, including one-syllable words with '-er', two-syllable words ending in '-y' changed to '-ier', and irregular adjective forms.

    Download full-size image from Pinterest

    Two things

    We use the comparative form of an adjective to compare two things.

    • Luke is taller than Mathew.
    • This armchair is more comfortable than the sofa.

    Less … than

    When we compare two things, we can also use the form less + adjective + than (less ≠ more).

    • Peter is less popular than Marta. (= Marta is more popular than Peter.)

    Than me

    If we use a personal pronoun after than, we need an object pronoun (me, you, him, etc.).

    • My sister is taller than me.
    • His sister is more intelligent than him.

    Much/a bit + more

    Before the comparative (more or –er), we can use much (=big difference) or a bit (=small difference).

    • He’s a bit taller than me.
    • Switzerland is much more expensive than Italy.

     

    Common mistakes!

    More or -er

    We use more or –er, but we cannot use more + -er.

    • My brother is more taller than me. blank
    • My brother is taller than me. blank

    More than (NOT that)

    After a comparative adjective, we use than and NOT that.

    • My brother is taller that me. blank
    • My brother is taller than me. blank

    Than + second element of the comparison

    We use than + the second thing that we are comparing. When we don’t mention the second element of the comparison, we do NOT use than.

    • I am tall, but my brother is taller than. blank
    • I am tall, but my brother is taller. blank

  • We are working on this!

    We're developing a NEW LEARNING PLATFORM with a subscription plan that includes additional features at an affordable price. One of those features will be PDF downloads.

    Learn more!

Related tests: