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Activities: “How to use comparative adjectives in English?”

By: revel arroway
Associated Articles

These activities are part of our English Grammar series. The skills we are practicing here are covered in our article:

Activity 1: Which one is ‘more’?

In this activity, you’ll practice using comparative adjectives to describe two different things. You’ll also practice using pronouns.

Pictures are presented in pairs - two sizes of airplane, two types of table, and so on. For each picture, write two sentences to compare the object to the other, following this pattern:

  • noun

    be

    comparative adjective

    than

    noun

    Joey is shorter than Michael.

  • noun

    be

    article

    comparative adjective

    noun

    than

    noun

    (be)

    Joey is a shorter boy than Michael (is).

Use any of the adjectives from this list, but use each one only once!

angry

big

delicious

disgusting

empty

fat

full

handsome

happy

long

new

old

short

skinny

small

tall

thick

thin

ugly

wide

  • jet

    A silhouette of a large jet plane.

  • puddle jumper

    An airplane that is too little for passengers.

  • Fluffy

    A gray cat that weighs a lot.

  • Frumpy

    A tall thin hairless cat.

  • Mark

    A drawing of a man with light skin, dark hair, and a blue shirt.

  • Hugo

    A portrait of a man with bad hair, missing teeth, a skin condition, and in need of a shave.

  • cherry pie

    A slice of cherry pie.

  • rotten pie

    A slice of pie that looks rotten. It is oozing green and brown.

  • these glasses

    Two glasses with nothing in them.

  • those glasses

    Two glasses filled with brown soda.

  • antique car

    A drawing of an aqua car that looks like it's from the 1940s or 1950s.

  • electric car

    A drawing of a yellow modern sporty car.

  • dining table

    A long narrow console table.

  • cafeteria table

    A drawing of a folding table that looks like it is close to being a square.

  • story book

    A narrow book with a hard, leather binding.

  • textbook

    A big, fat, book with a green cover.

  • Sam and Sal

    Two identical boys stand back-to-back. One wears blue, the other green. They are not very tall.

  • Brian and Bob

    Two identical teenage boys stand back-to-back. One in red, the other in green. They look long and lanky.

  • Alex

    A drawing of a light-colored dog with floppy ears and a big smile.

  • Snouty

    A drawing of a snarling chihuahua.

Activity 2: Email crossword

Fill in the blanks with comparative adjectives and qualifiers from the list below. You can use each term more than once! The first letter of each answer has been included as a hint, but you should write the whole word.

Adjectives
Other phrases

  • accurate

  • active

  • bad

  • few

  • good

  • hard

  • long

  • low

  • responsible

  • significant

  • smart

  • thoughtful

  • worried

Remember that you will need to add the comparative form of the adjectives above!

  • a lot

  • more and more

    → (and similar phrases)

  • much

  • than

Jimmy’s English teacher at school, Mrs. Stelch, has worked hard to help Jimmy improve his grades in English class. Three months ago, Jimmy almost failed English, but since then, there has been an important improvement. Mrs. Stelch wrote an email to Jill, Jimmy’s mother, to talk about this improvement.

Dear Mrs. Moore,

You know that three months ago, Jimmy’s grades in English class were w t his classmates’ grades. He had these problems:

  • His spelling was very sloppy.

  • He did not participate in classroom activities.

  • He didn’t understand the grammar lessons.

  • His essays were too short and were full of errors.

  • He often did not turn in his homework.

Jimmy is a s boy t many of his classmates, and he got good grades in other subjects, but we were becoming m a m w about his English grades. So, Jimmy and I worked together to make his grades b. Here are the results:

Spelling: I gave Jimmy an activity. Every time he spelled a word wrong, he copied it ten times into a special notebook. This helped: his spelling is now m m a ! Still, some words are h t others, so he is still learning.

Classroom activities: Jimmy is a little shy in class, but I’ve given him a partner, Jenny, who is very active in class. I asked them to give answers together, and now Jimmy is a l m a!

Grammar: Since he is b at math than English, I showed Jimmy that grammar is a lot like math. X + Y = Z! I’ve never seen m s improvement in a student! I will use this with other students in the future!

Essays: We’ve tried giving a minimum word count for essays now. All students must write between 50 and 100 words for any assignment. Jimmy is now writing l essays, which is great! And with his b understanding of the grammar rules, I am seeing a l f errors!

Homework: After you and I spoke, I can see that you are helping Jimmy to be m r with his homework. His homework is not only on time, but also his answers are m t. Thank you for your help!

Jimmy’s English grade is still l than it could be, so we need to continue helping him. Even so, I am very pleased with his improvement and think he will become b a b at English as the school year continues.

Kind regards,
Mrs. Steltch

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