Personal comparisons Say to students ‘Tell me a food / song / film that you like. Now tell me one you don’t like. Compare them’.
My family Tell students ‘Think of a person in your family. Find ten ways that you are different from them’ (He’s older than me).
Boasting party Students imagine that they are at a party of very rich people. Students mingle and meet up in pairs. Each person must make a statement - and the other should make a boast that he / she has something better / bigger (A: M y house has twenty rooms. B: Only twenty? M y house is much bigger than that!).
Joined-up comparisons Write the names of 10-15 different but related items randomly around the board (animals: bears, rabbits, ants, ducks, snakes, mice, tigers). Ask a student to come to the board and draw a line connecting twyo of these. Elicit a good comparison between the two things (Tigers are more ferocious than ants). Repeat the game again and again with new pairs of items. V ariation Students are not allowed to re-use an adjective that another student has used.
Concept questions • The Suzuki is m uch cheaper than the Rolls Royce. Which car has a very high price? (The Rolls Royce) Which car has a low price? (The Suzuki) One car costs £30,000 pounds. One car costs £12,000. Which car costs £12,000? (The Suzuki) I have £15,000. Which car can I buy? (The Suzuki) Why? (It’s cheaper.) Make a sentence about the cars using expensive. (The Rolls Royce is (much) more expensive than the Suzuki) •
Our new classroom is worse than the old one. Is the new classroom good? (No) Which do I prefer - the new one or the old one? (The old one) Why? (It was better) Make a sentence about the classrooms using better (The old classroom was better than the new one).
Meaning and use We use comparatives to compare things (nouns or noun phrases) to say how one thing is different from another, or has more or less of a feature or quality than another thing. Comparisons may be with the same thing at different times - ie wre are saying that there is a change in something over a period of time.