Агентство Лангуст [переход на главную]

Unit 25. Comparatives and superlatives: uses
(сравнительные и превосходные формы прилагательных: использование)

Main points

1. You use comparative adjectives to compare one person or thing with another, or with the same person or thing at another time. After a comparative adjective, you often use ‘than’.

She was much older than me.

I am happier than I have ever been.

2. You use a superlative to say that one person or thing has more of a quality than others in a group or others of that kind.

Tokyo is Japan's largest city.

He was the tallest person there.

3. You can use comparative and superlative adjectives in front of a noun.

I was a better writer than he was.

He had more important things to do.

It was the quickest route from Rome to Naples.

You can also use comparative and superlative adjectives after link verbs.

My brother is younger than me.

He feels more content now.

The sergeant was the tallest.

This book was the most interesting.

4. You can use adverbs of degree in front of comparative adjectives.

a bit
far
a great/good deal
a little
a lot
much
rather
slightly

This car's a bit more expensive.

Now I feel a great deal more confident.

It's a rather more complicated story than that.

You can also use adverbs of degree such as ‘by far’, ‘easily’, ‘much’, or ‘quite’ in front of ‘the’ and superlative adjectives.

It was by far the worst hospital I had ever seen.

She was easily the most intelligent person in the class.

Note that you can put ‘very’ between ‘the’ and a superlative adjective ending in ‘-est’.

It was of the very highest quality.

5. When you want to say that one situation depends on another, you can use ‘the’ and a comparative followed by ‘the’ and another comparative.

The smaller it is, the cheaper it is to post.

The larger the organisation is, the greater the problem of administration becomes.

When you want to say that something increases or decreases, you can use two comparatives linked by ‘and’.

It's getting harder and harder to find a job.

Cars are becoming more and more expensive.

6. You can use comparative and superlative adjectives in front of a noun.

After a superlative adjective, you can use a prepositional phrase to specify the group you are talking about.

Henry was the biggest of them.

These cakes are probably the best in the world.

He was the most dangerous man in the country.

7. You use the same structures in comparisons using adverbs as those given for adjectives:

← back forward →
хостинг для сайтов © Langust Agency 1999-2024, ссылка на сайт обязательна