Comparative Adjectives

A2–B1AdjectivesJanuary 27, 2026

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Hello.

My name is Emma, and in today's video, I am going to teach you about comparative adjectives.

So, what are comparative adjectives?

They are words we use when we are comparing different things or different people.

Okay?

So, let's look a little bit more into this.

I just wanted to remind you about what a noun is and an adjective is before we begin.

A noun is a person, a place, or a thing.

So, for example, this marker is a noun because it's a thing.

I'm a person, my name is Emma - I'm also a noun.

Okay?

Right now we are in a classroom - a classroom is a place, so "classroom" is a noun.

So, a noun is a person, a place, or a thing.

An adjective is something...

Or I should say it's a word that describes a noun.

Okay?

So, I said before this is a marker.

If I called it a blue marker, "blue" would be the adjective.

Or if I said: "This is a colourful marker" or "a dull marker", these are all adjectives

to describe the noun "marker".

Okay.

So, here are some other examples of adjectives.

We can use the word "cold", okay?

Right now I'm cold.

We can use the word "hot"; that's an adjective.

"Tall", "old", "rich", "poor".

We use these words to describe something.

Okay?

So, a lot of the times we like to compare things.

Okay?

We like to compare people.

Okay?

Which celebrity is hotter?

Okay?

Which...?

Which dress is nicer?

In English, we often compare two things; and when we compare things, we need to use comparative

adjectives.

So, let's look at that.

So, we have some rules when it comes to using adjectives to compare two things.

When an adjective, so such as these, are one syllable or one beat, we add "er" to it when

we want to use it to compare.

So, let's look at an example of this-okay?-because it's sort of hard to understand unless you

actually see what I'm talking about.

I have here two cups.

Okay?

I want to compare these two cups.

This cup is old, this cup is new, so when I compare these two cups, I add the word "er"

to the adjective when I compare them.

So, I can say: "This cup is older than this cup.

This cup is newer than this cup."

Okay?

So, let's look at this.

What did I do?

I added "er" to the word "old", and I added "er" to the word "new".

So, when I'm comparing two things, if the adjective...

In this case, the adjective is "old" and "new".

If the adjective is one syllable or one beat, meaning it's a short adjective, we add "er".

Let's look at another example.

This book is very heavy.

So, I have here this book: The Unabridged Edgar Allan Poe.

It's a very nice book, but it's very heavy.

And then I have this book: The Hen Who Dreamed She Could Fly.

It's a book written by a South Korean author that's really good, but it's...

It's very light.

Okay?

So, I want to compare these two books.

What can I say about these two books?

How are they different?

Well, this book is very long.

This book is longer than this book.

Okay?

This book is longer than this book.

So, notice we have the word "long"; this is long; that describes the book.

And we add "er"-"er"-to compare it to this book.

Now, maybe I want to talk about this book.

I can say: "This book is shorter than this book."

And, again, all I need to do is add "er" to the adjective.

Sorry.

So, this book is longer; this book is shorter.

Let's look at another example.

I have a lot of things today to show you.

Best part of all: The swords.

Okay?

These are swords.

I don't know if you can see that, but this is a little sword.

It looks like something you could put in a sandwich, maybe.

This is a much bigger sword.

So, how can we compare these two?

Well, again, there's many things we can say about these two swords; there's many adjectives

we can use to describe them.

Let's look at the one we have on the board.

Let's do...

Well, this isn't really thicker.

We can say "longer" and "shorter" with this.

We can also say: "lighter" and "heavier".

This sword is a heavier sword.

Okay?

It's a lot bigger.

It's bigger and it's heavier.

This sword is smaller.

Okay?

Notice it's smaller and it's lighter.

So, what I did there was I just added "er" or the sound "er" to "heavy" to make it "heavier",

and I added "er" to small to make it "smaller".

Okay?

So let's do some more practice, and talk about different adjectives that are more than one

syllable and what we do.

Okay, so we've talked about how you can add "er", which is pronounced "er" to adjectives

when the adjectives are short.

What about with longer adjectives?

Okay?

Adjectives that are two syllables or more?

So, for example, we have the word "serious" - this is three syllables; "colourful" - this

is three syllables; "difficult" - three; "popular"-okay?-that's also three syllables.

So, when we have longer words that are more than one syllable, we use the word "more"

when we want to compare.

Okay?

So, I'll give you an example.

I have here two ducks.

Okay?

I have this nice, wooden duck; and I have this duck that is dressed in...

I guess it's a gladiator.

So, I have these two ducks.

I want to compare them.

So, when I'm comparing them, I look at them and I think: "Hmm.

Which one is more serious?"

Serious.

I think this duck is more serious.

It is more serious.

Now I want to say something about this duck.

This duck is more serious; this duck is less serious.

Okay?

So, we use "more" and we use "less" when we're comparing two adjectives that are long adjectives;

more than two syllables or two syllables.

Okay?

What else can we say about these two ducks?

Well, this duck is very colourful.

This duck, it's mainly yellow.

It's wearing colourful clothing, but it's yellow.

So I would say: "The feathers on this duck are more colourful than the feathers on this

duck."

So, the feathers are more colourful on this duck.

Okay?

So let's put these ducks away.

Okay?

They're just going to swim away.

Let's think of some other examples.

What about if we're talking about languages?

Maybe we're talking about grammar.

I think English grammar is more difficult than Spanish grammar.

Okay?

So, here's the word "difficult".

I think English grammar is more difficult than Spanish grammar.

I don't actually know; maybe Spanish grammar is hard, but just as an example.

Or maybe I want to compare two people.

Maybe I want to compare Ryan Reynolds and Phillippe.

Okay?

You probably...

You might know Ryan Reynolds.

I would say Ryan Reynolds is more popular than Ryan Phillippe.

Ryan Phillippe is less popular than Ryan Reynolds.

Sorry, if Ryan Phillippe is watching; probably isn't, but...

Okay, so that's an example of using these adjectives.

One exception that a lot of students find very challenging is that sometimes adjectives

that are two syllables sometimes have "er" endings, and sometimes use "more".

So, this can get really confusing for students.

For example: "friendly".

"Friend-ly", okay, it has two syllables, but we would say: "friendlier"; we add "er" in

that case.

So, the main rule is: If it's one syllable, "er"; three or more syllables, you use "more"

or "less"; and if it's two syllables, sometimes it's "er" and sometimes it's "more", and sometimes

you have a choice.

I know it's a little confusing, but that's just what the grammar is.

So, now let's look at spelling because spelling is also important when it comes to comparative

adjectives.

Okay, so we've talked about when to use "er" or "er", and when to use "more" and "less"

when we're describing or comparing two objects and we're using adjectives.

So, now we're going to talk a little bit about the spelling, because here's where it gets

a little bit tricky.

Okay?

So, imagine I am comparing these two elephants.

This elephant is bigger than this elephant.

So, even though we pronounce it "bigger", when we spell it, we use a bit of a different

rule.

So, I have here the word "big", so that's the adjective we're using, and I have the

"er", but I've added a second "g".

So, if you notice in green, I've added another letter.

Why do I have a second "g" there?

So, when we are using comparatives, we need to pay attention to vowels and consonants,

because this is going to help us with spelling.

So, a vowel is: a, e, i, o, and u.

A consonant are the other letters.

Okay?

So, vowels are these letters and they have different sounds, and consonants are not vowels,

so they're the rest of the letters or the sounds in English.

So, what happens is when you're spelling...

When you're using an adjective and you're making it a comparative adjective by adding

"er", you need to look at the word and you need to figure out the last three parts of

the adjective, so in this case, "big"...

"B" is a consonant, so I'm going to put a "c"; "i" is a vowel, so I'm going to put a

"v"; and "g" is a consonant, so I'm going to put a "c".

When you have consonant, vowel, consonant - you need to add a second consonant or a

second letter.

So, in this case, the last letter...

The last consonant is a "g", so when we're making a comparative adjective, we need to

add another "g".

Why is this the case?

I don't know.

I think it makes English a little more complicated, but that's okay.

Okay?

So this is the rule; I didn't make this rule, but this is what it is.

So, let's look at another example.

We have here the word "hot", okay?

So, right now I am very hot.

I am feeling hotter than my sister.

So, what I can say is, if I look at these three letters, we have "h" which is a consonant,

we have "o" which is a vowel, and we have "t" which is a consonant.

So, because we have consonant, vowel, consonant - I needed to add another letter, and this

letter is the same as the one before it, so I add another "t".

So, "bigger", we have two g's when we spell it; "hotter" we have two t's, and it's because

of this consonant, vowel, consonant rule for spelling.

Okay, so now let's think about "smaller".

In this case, if you look at the word "small", the last three sounds-okay?-you get a vowel,

and then you get a consonant which is the "l", and you have another consonant which

is the "l".

So, in this case, we don't need to add another letter.

Okay?

Unlike with "bigger" and "hotter" - because we have a vowel, consonant, and a consonant,

we don't need to do anything.

Let's look at another example.

So, I have here the word "cold".

Okay?

Canada is colder than Mexico, just as an example.

So, if I wanted to write out this word as a comparative adjective, I would look at the

last three letters - we have "o" which is a vowel, we have "l" which is a consonant,

and we have "d" which is a consonant.

So, because it's vowel, consonant, consonant - we can just add "er"; we don't need to add

another letter.

Okay?

So, just to recap: When we have consonant, vowel, consonant - you need to double up the

last letter; if you have something different than consonant, vowel, consonant - you do

not need to add anything.

Okay?

And this might take a little bit of practice, and that's okay.

We have a quiz at the very...

That you can take at the end of this video where you can practice these skills some more.

Let's look at one other spelling rule we have when we're talking about comparative adjectives.

If an adjective ends in a "y", so we have: "happy", "heavy", "scary" - when we turn it

into...

For these ones, they're two syllables: "happ-y", "heav-y", "scar-y".

These are some two-syllable adjectives that we can use "er" on.

So, when we add "er", we need to change the "y".

We change the "y" to an "i".

So, we have: "happy", the "y" becomes an "i" and then we add "er".

We have the word "heavy", again, it ends in a "y", so when we make it a comparative adjective,

we change the "y" to an "i" and we add "er".

Let's do one final example for this video.

So, I have here two monkeys.

This is a monkey made out of wood, and this is a monkey made out of plastic.

So, I want your opinion: Which monkey is scarier?

Which monkey is the scary monkey?

Okay?

Is it this one or this one?

I think this monkey is scarier than this monkey.

So, if I'm going to spell out the word "scarier" - "scary" ends with a "y", so we change the

"y" to an "i" and we add "er".

This monkey...

This monkey's really scary.

I hope you're not afraid at the end of this video; I'll be putting this away in a moment.

Thank you for watching.

I hope you've learned a lot in this video.

You can practice a lot of what you learned by taking our quiz at www.engvid.com; there,

you can actually practice your spelling, as well as the different concepts we've covered

in this video.

You can also subscribe to my channel, where we have a lot more resources on grammar, on

listening, on pronunciation; on all sorts of different topics.

So, thank you, again, for watching; and until next time, take care.

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About this lesson

Learn how to form and use comparative adjectives to compare people, things, and ideas in English.

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