English 24
8st March 2003
A little bit of GRAMMAR

Well guys we're back with comparatives, this week we concentrated on adjectives and adverbs which have irregular comparative forms.

1. Good/ well better I know Simone better than you do
My mother is much better now
Bad/badly worse Are you feeling better? No, worse
Her injuries are much worse than we expected.
Far further (or farther)

The children are very tired: they can't walk much further or farther.

* NB. Further but not farther can also mean more or additional:
Tell me immediately if you hear any further news from their spokesperson. (any more news)

Note: the comparative words more and less:
§ I smoke more than I used to
§ We've got less time than I thought

2. Older / Elder
The comparative of old is older:
§ Michael looks older than he really is

It is often difficult to remember when to use older and elder so here is the rule…
We use elder when we are talking about members of a family. We say (my) elder brother( sister/ son /daughter) :
§ My elder sister is an actress
We use elder only before a noun
§ MY sister is older than me. (not elder than me)

Sometimes you can use two comparatives together.
E.g. harder and harder ; more and more; more and more difficult. We use this structure to say that something is changing continuously:

§ It's becoming harder and harder to understand what he's saying. (more and more difficult)
§ Your driving is improving it's getting better and better soon you'll be able to take your test.
§ It's becoming more and more difficult to understand what he's saying.
§ These days more and more people are using the internet.

We also have a structure that you might have heard of "the + comparative the better"
§ What time shall we leave the party? "The sooner the better" (= as soon as possible)
§ What size ice-cream do you want? The bigger the better (= as big as possible)

We also use "the …the….. (with two comparatives) to say that one thing depends on another thing:

§ The warmer the weather the better I feel
§ The colder the weather the worse I feel
§ The earlier we leave the sooner we arrive
§ The more you have the more you want
§ The bigger your car the more petrol you consume.

Practice Exercises

Exercise 1
Complete the following sentences using the words below. You may need to use some of these words more than once.
e.g. I'll call her, I know her better than you do.
Better worse further older elder

1. My ____ sister is a lawyer.
2. Emily is _than Tom.
3. We were very lucky. It could have been much ___.
4. Come on it's not far now, only a little bit ___.
5. My sister didn't do very well in her exams, it's a shame because she could have done much _____.
6. If you need any ____ information, please don't hesitate to ask.
7. We complained to the building administrator about the terrible neighbours but it only made the situation _____.
8. The food in our hotel got ____ instead of ______, even after we'd complained about it.

Exercise 2
This time you have to use the structure …... and……..
e.g.
§ I'm finding studying and working harder and harder to cope with.
§ I'm finding it more and more difficult to study and work at the same time.
1. I become ____ ______every time a call centre puts me on hold and the line goes dead. (frustrated)
2. The hole in your jumper is getting ___________. It's time to throw it away. (big)
3. The weather got ____________ as our holiday went on. (bad)
4. Travelling by air in Europe is becoming _______. (cheap)
5. Since Jo's been in France her French has gotten ______. (good)
6. The cost of living is getting ______ . (expensive)

Answers

Exercise 1
1.more and more frustrated; 2. bigger and bigger; 3. worse and worse; 4.cheaper and cheaper; 5. better and better; 6. more and more expensive
Exercise 2
1. more and more frustrated; 2. bigger and bigger; 3. worse and worse; 4. cheaper and cheaper; 5. better and better; 6. more and more expensive