adjectives comparatives and superlatives

Adjectives Comparatives and Superlatives

Adjectives | Adjectives Comparatives and Superlatives

Adjectives are words that describe nouns like: big elephant. Big is the adjective and it describes the elephant which is the noun. To even better describe an elephant you might say: the big, smart, grey elephant. Here we have 3 adjectives describing the elephant: big, smart and (even colors) grey.

Are adjectives important?

Yes. Absolutely. We could say something like: Look at that man. But it doesn’t tell us much about the man. Let’s rewrite it with some adjectives. Look at that short, dirty, ugly man. Now we have a better understanding of what the man is like. What about if we said: Look at that tall, handsome, well-dressed man. We also have a better understanding of what the man is like but it’s completely different than the first example. So, yes, adjectives are important.

We can use adjectives to describe the opinion, size, shape, age, color, origin, material, or purpose of nouns.

Here’s a list of adjectives, along with comparatives (comparative form of an adjective; comparing two things), and superlatives (superlative form of an adjective; one in a group).

AdjectivesComparativesSuperlatives
bigbigger thanthe biggest
smallsmaller thanthe smallest
longlonger thanthe longest
shortshorter thanthe shortest
talltaller thanthe tallest
happyhappier thanthe happiest
sadsadder thanthe saddest
fastfaster thanthe fastest
slowslower thanthe slowest
fatfatter thanthe fattest
Short Adjectives Comparatives and Superlatives

We will discuss comparatives and superlatives a little later in this article. In this section, we are just going to focus on adjectives. Here’s a fun slideshow presentation to practice some adjectives. See if you can guess what the adjectives are.

Adjectives by Sanook English

You can also check out this video about adjectives. This is a fun guessing game with 10 adjectives. Firstly, students will see part of a zoomed in picture. If they can guess the adjective, that’s awesome. Secondly, the picture will zoom out a bit and students can choose from 3 choices. Thirdly, a video plays as students choose their answer. Finally, the answer is revealed.

Adjective ESL guessing game | Adjectives Comparatives and Superlatives

For teachers, we recommend pausing the video as you go through. It’s also a lot of fun to put your class into teams and see who can guess correctly. This video is also great to use for online learning or homeschool too.

Here you can try an Adjectives interactive game. It’s a matching game. Enjoy

Adjectives to Describe Personality

Here’s a fun slideshow to learn about different adjectives of personality. You will learn about adjectives that you use when you describe height like: short, tall and average-sized; when you describe age like: young, middle-aged, and old; when you describe body like: thin, slim, skinny, strong, well-built, plump and fat; when you describe appearance like: beautiful, pretty, cute, handsome, elegant, and ugly.

Adjectives to Describe Personality by Sanook English

Adjectives to Describe Setting

Here’s a presentation to show some adjectives that describe places like wet, rainy, dry, dusty, cold, icy, chilly, freezing, dark, scary, spooky, quiet, calm, peaceful, loud, noisy, smoky, and busy.

Adjectives to Describe Setting by Sanook English

Adjectives for Intermediate ESL students

These adjectives are a little more difficult. There’s a variety of adjectives like: pretty, ugly, brave, scary, cheerful, fierce, proud, smelly, caring, and polite.

Adjectives – intermediate by Sanook English

Adjectives to Describe Feelings

You can also use adjectives to describe feelings. We use them all the time when we ask someone: How are you? I’m good/okay/happy. Adjectives to Describe feelings are also good for talking about people’s personalities like: The happy, cheerful man. Or: The sad, angry girl. We put together a presentation of adjectives to describe feelings for advanced ESL students. Some of the adjectives are hard to understand so we have included definitions for each word. You will see the definition first and then there will be three choices. These adjectives include: proud, interested, calm, embarrassed, in love, full, frustrated, worried, homesick, confused, comfortable, uncomfortable, funny, mean, shy, lazy, helpful, kind, generous, and selfish.

Advanced feelings by Sanook English

We also have 2 videos that go with the slideshow.

Adjectives for Feelings | Adjectives Comparatives and Superlatives
Adjectives for Feelings 2 | Adjectives Comparatives and Superlatives

Comparatives | Adjectives Comparatives and Superlatives

Comparative adjectives compare two things. Comparatives show the difference between two nouns.

Examples:

My house is bigger than your apartment.

The cheetah is faster than the turtle.

That butterfly is more beautiful than that cockroach.

A Few Things to Know about Comparatives

Comparatives are followed by than. As in: You are smarter than me.

A lot of adjectives can be made into comparatives by adding –er. As in: You are smarter than me. These are one or most two syllable words (short words): longer, smarter, faster, taller.

If an adjective has one syllable and a short vowel and one consonant at the end, you must double the consonant before adding -er. As in: bigger, fatter, thinner, sadder.

If an adjective ends with a -y, you must remove the -y and add -i. As in: happier, scarier, spookier, busier.

If an adjective is long, three syllables or more (some two syllable words too), you must use: more + adjective + than. As in: more beautiful than, more intelligent than, more interesting than, more crowded than (crowded has 2 syllables), more modern than (modern has 2 syllables), more colorful than.

Here’s a fun presentation to learn about and practice using comparatives. It’s a fun guessing game with awesome pictures and 3 choices to choose the correct comparative.

Comparatives by Sanook English

Here’s a video that goes with the presentation. This is a fun guessing game with 10 comparative adjective words. Firstly, students will see part of a zoomed in picture. If they can guess the comparative, that’s awesome. Secondly, a video plays to help the students form a comparative sentence. Thirdly, the picture will zoom out a bit and students can choose from 3 choices to finish the sentence. Finally, the answer is revealed.

Comparative Adjectives video | Adjectives Comparatives and Superlatives

Superlatives | Adjectives Comparatives and Superlatives

Superlative adjectives are one in a group; that is, the upper or lower end of the group. They are used to compare one thing to a group of things.

Examples:

The elephant is the biggest animal in the zoo.

That house is the scariest on our street.

She is the most beautiful girl in the class.

A Few Things to Know about Superlatives

Superlatives have the before the adjective like: the biggest, the smallest, the most intelligent.

For one and some two syllable (short) adjectives, just like comparatives use -er, superlatives use –est. As in: the smartest, the loudest, the fastest.

If an adjective has one syllable and a short vowel and one consonant at the end, you must double the consonant before adding -est. As in: biggest, fattest, thinnest, saddest.

If an adjective ends with a -y, you must remove the -y and add -i. As in: happiest, scariest, spookiest, busiest.

If an adjective is long, three syllables or more (some two syllable words too), you must use: the + most + adjective. As in: the most beautiful, the most intelligent, the most interesting, the most crowded (crowded has 2 syllables), the most modern (modern has 2 syllables), the most colorful.

AdjectivesComparativesSuperlatives
expensivemore expensive thanthe most expensive
beautifulmore beautiful thanthe most beautiful
interestingmore interesting thanthe most interesting
intelligentmore intelligent thanthe most intelligent
modernmore modern thanthe most modern
crowdedmore crowded thanthe most crowded
goodbetter thanthe best
badworse thanthe worst
farfarther thanthe farthest
littleless thanthe least
Long and Irregular Adjectives Comparatives and Superlatives

Here’s a presentation to learn about and practice superlative adjectives.

Superlatives by Sanook English

Here’s an exciting video to learn all about superlatives. This is a fun guessing game with 10 superlative adjectives. Firstly, students will have 3 choices to finish the superlative sentence. Secondly, a short video will play, meanwhile students can think of the correct answer. Thirdly, the answer is revealed with confetti and fireworks.

Superlative Adjective Video | Adjectives Comparatives and Superlatives

You can download these Adjectives Comparatives and Superlatives worksheets for Free. There are 4 worksheets. Two of the sheets are adjective comparative and superlative lists. The other two are fill in the blanks.

English for Everyone | Adjectives Comparatives and Superlatives

We want everyone to get better at English. That’s why we have created a ton of awesome resources and have made them available to everyone, for FREE.

You can check out more adjectives comparatives and superlatives activities. Click here.

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We hope you enjoyed this article and we hope that you learned a little bit more about Adjectives Comparatives and Superlatives.

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