compadjadv

Comparative Adjectives and Adverbs

An LBCC E-ESL Lesson

Introduction Comparative Adjectives

Comparative & Superlative Adverbs Quizzes

Introduction

This lesson covers comparative adverbs and comparative adjectives. Students will learn how to form sentences with as ... as, how to change as ... as sentences to sentences using less, and how to complete a comparison with either an adverb or an adjective.

Comparative Adjectives

An adjective describes a noun. That means, it gives us more information about the noun. A comparative adjective is used to compare two nouns. A comparative adjective sentence often contains as ... as. Comparative adjectives are best described through examples.

Lorraine is as tall as her daughter.

In this sentence, tall is the comparative adjective. It is between as .... as.

Roberto is as nice as Susan.

Nice is the comparative adjective in this sentence. Once again, it is between as .... as.

The previous examples show how comparative adjectives show how two things are similar. Comparative adjective also describe how two things are different.

Hiep is not as tall as Keila.

In this sentence, not is used to show that Hiep and Keila do not have the same height. In fact, Hiep is shorter than Keila.

Harold is not as nice as Ellen.

Another way to say this is, Ellen is nicer than Harold.

A poodle is not as vicious as a pit bull.

Or, A poodle is less vicious than a pit bull.

As you can see from the examples, you do not have to use the as ... as to compare things. You can also say something is less or more than something else. To learn more about comparative and superlative sentences using less, more, -er, and -est, check out the lessons about comparative and superlative adjectives on the Big List.

Comparative & Superlative Adverbs

Comparative and superlative adverbs are very similar to comparative and superlative adjectives. The following table explains how to create the comparative or superlative adverb.

Adverb Type	Comparative	Superlative
-ly quickly slowly, fluently	more -ly more quickly, more slowly, more fluently	them most -ly the most quickly, the most slowly, the most fluently
regular one & two syllable adverbs fast, late	-er faster, later	the -est the fastest, the latest
irregular adverbs early*, bad, well	earlier, worse, better	the earliest, the worst, the best

* Even though early ends with -ly, it is not a common adverb because it was not created from an adjective. Most adverbs are made by adding -ly to an adjective. Quick becomes quickly, fluent becomes fluently, and so on. There isn't an adjective ear in English and so you say earlier and the earliest instead of more early or the most early.