2TTO - Unit 4 - Comparisons, superlatives, prefixes & suffixes

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• Middelbare school
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• Leerjaar 2

2TTO - Unit 4 - 

Comparisons, superlatives, prefixes & suffixes

What grammar do you need to know?

• Comparative
• Superlative
• As ... as
• Prefixes
• Suffixes
• Articles
• So, such, too, enough 

What is a comparative and what is superlative?

1. Who can make this comparison?

2. Who can make this comparison?

3. Who can make this superlative?

4. Who can make this superlative?

Comparisons & comparatives

We use comparatives and superlatives to say how people or things are different. We use a comparative adjective to express how two people or things are different, and we use a superlative adjective to show how one person or thing is different to all the others of its kind.

For example:

• Comparative: “Jack is taller than Mickey.” “Paris is more beautiful than London.”
• Superlative: “Jack is the tallest in his family.” “Paris is the most beautiful city in the world.”

Different comparatives

Comparative adjectives enable us to express the difference between two people or things. There are three ways to make comparatives:

• With long adjectives, we use more to express the comparison: “Paris is more beautiful than  London.” (three or more syllables)
• With short adjectives, we add -er to the adjective to express the comparison: “Jack is taller than Mickey.” (one or two syllables)
• There are some irregular adjectives: good-better, bad-worse, far-further, little-less, etc.

Adjective	Comparative	Superlative
good	better	best
bad	worse	worst
much	more	most
far	further	furthest
less	lesser	least
many	more	most
well	better	best

Exercise 1: write down the comparative or superlative (5 minutes)

1. My sister thinks she’s _______ (intelligent) than me, but I don’t agree.
2. Avatar is probably _______ (bad) film I’ve seen!
3. What is _______ (cold) month of the year in England?
4. Do you think the Harry Potter films are _______ (good) than the books?
5. Who is _______ (powerful) person in your country.
6. I think Men in Black 1 was _______ (funny) than Men in Black 3.
7. Is Angelina Jolie _______ (old) than Sandra Bullock?
8. John is _______ (nice) person that I know.     

1. My sister thinks she’s _______ (intelligent) than me, but I don’t agree.

more intelligent

2. Avatar is probably _______ (bad) film I’ve seen!

the worst

3. What is _______ (cold) month of the year in England?

the coldest

4. Do you think the Harry Potter films are _______ (good) than the books?

better

5. Who is _______ (powerful) person in your country.

the most powerful

6. I think Men in Black 1 was _______ (funny) than Men in Black 3.

funnier

7. Is Angelina Jolie _______ (old) than Sandra Bullock?

older

8. John is _______ (nice) person that I know.     

the nicest

Inferior comparative

We use “less” to say that something has an inferior quality (the opposite of more). It’s easier because you just put less in front of the adjective: 

• “Walking is less tiring than running.” (= the opposite of “Running is more tiring than walking.”

Different superlatives

We use superlatives to compare one person or thing to several others. There are three ways to use superlatives:

• With long adjectives, we use “the most”: “Paris is the most beautiful city I’ve ever seen.” (three or more syllables)
• With short adjectives, we use “-est”: “Jack is the tallest of the family.”
  (one or two syllables)
• There are some irregular adjectives: good-better-best, bad-worse-worst, far-further-furthest, little-less-least, etc.

As ... as

There is another way to compare people and things in English which is using as + adjective + as. We use this form to say that things are or aren’t the same. For example:

• I’m as tall as my brother. (We are the same height.)
• This book isn’t as good as that one. (The quality of the books is not the same.) 
• Are you as hungry as I am? (Are we hungry in the same way?)

1. Is this a suffix or a prefix?

2. Is this a suffix or a prefix?

Prefixes

Prefixes are letters which we add to the beginning of a word to make a new word with a different meaning.. They can also make a word negative or express relations of time, place or manner. Examples:

• co: normal verb is operate, cooperate -> together
• dis: normal noun is comfort, discomfort -> opposite
• over: normal noun is populated, overpopulated -> too much

Suffixes

A suffix is a letter or group of letters added to the end of a word. Suffixes are commonly used to show the part of speech of a word. 

For example, adding "ion" to the verb "act" gives us "action," the noun form of the word.

Suffixes also tell us the verb tense of words or whether the words are plural or singular.

Now, let’s complete this table!

• Use the table that you have been given on paper and the verb tense overview.
  
  
• Write down when the verb form is used and give one example sentence.
  
  
• Use this presentation or the PPT on Classroom if needed!

Exercise 2: Story (15 minutes)

1. Grab a pen and look at the story given to you on paper.
2. In the story, you will have to write down: comparatives, superlatives, suffixes, prefixes, and articles.
3. Use 8 minutes to write them down.
4. We will go through the answers together.