JHS_Grammar_ComparativeAndSuperlative

Comparatives & Superlatives

比較表現　（ひかくひょうげん）

FUN FACT: "As of 2002, almost half of all private homes in Japan have a heated toilet seat. This exceeds the number of households with a personal computer." (source)

DEFINITION: There are two basic degrees of comparisons: comparative and superlative. You use the comparative for comparing two things and the superlative for comparing three or more things.

Here's the shortened definition between the two:

Comparative: Adjectives/adverbs ending in -er or modified by the word more and compare two items.
Superlative: Adjectives/adverbs ending in -est or modified by the word most and compare three or more items.

Comparatives frequently includes the word than, while the precedes superlatives. The inflected suffixes -er and -est are used to form most comparatives and superlatives, although we need -ier and -iest when a two-syllable adjective ends in 'y': happier and happiest. Use the modifiers more or most with all root words longer than two syllables as well as with two syllable words that sound awkward.

EXAMPLES:

Comparative: Godzilla is stronger than King Kong.
Superlative: Godzilla is the strongest of all monsters.
Irregular: good --> better --> best. Here's a list of more irregulars.

OFF-SITE DEFINITION

American Cultural Differences: This is simply a .pdf file comparing the USA to Japan.

As Fun As No Bingos (as): Students practice listening and speaking while play the game bingo and yet aim at not getting bingos.

As Hungry as a Bear (as): Students complete a worksheet based upon matching adjectives with their corresponding nouns.

Battleship: Battleship game using basic comparatives.

Best Hero: In this game, a group of students race to compare three cartoon or comic characters, and try to guess who is the strongest, second strongest, and third strongest.

Better & Better Maze (better): Students work through a maze using the question, "Which do you like better, A or B?" The goal is to reach the finish line.

Better Bingo (er): Students learn to express their likes and play bingo. Then they will demonstrate their ability to configure comparative adjectives by playing word search.

Better Question Maze (er): Students must ask their friends which food, sport, actitivy, etc. they like better. Each answer creates the route the student will take through the maze and they must follow the arrows through the worksheet until they reach the final goal.

Big English Debate, The (better): Students decide what they like better out of various subjects and make a dialogue.

Bigger Mouse (er): A fun pictionary style game to help students sort out the potentially frustrating “this is ~er than that” format. In pairs, students draw pictures to an assigned secret sentence and the class tries to guess which sentence is depicted. It also makes very good writing practice.

BORGY (all): The name of the game stands for: Blue, Orange, Red, Green and Yellow. Students listen to the ALT/JTE comparative and/or superative sentences to lineup their color cards.

Character Riddles (er): Students practice reading comparative sentences of four people to figure out which person is the prettiest, oldest, tallest and fastest.

Class Top List (best / most / est): Using "The best..., The most..., and The ~est..." construction, students choose among their classmates to see who should receive the title.

Comparative Betting (er): This game goes with the ComparativeFun game's worksheet for a complete lesson on comparatives. It's a fun betting game that will get your kids super-excited.

Comparative Mario: This is essentially a board game that is made to look like the original NES (Famicon) game that has the students practicing comparatives/superlatives.

Comparative Riddle (er): Students solve a riddle and make comparative sentences.

Comparative Survey (est / irregular): Students conduct surverys of their friends using comparative questions and write sentences using their newly discovered knowledge.

Comparing Disney (er): Students use the cute worksheet to compare popular animated characters - bigger, smaller, taller, shorter, etc.

Easier Than You Think: Students practice comparative structure sentences via a worksheet.

ER-EST Battle Royale: This activity is formatted in a familiar tournament style ranking to give students an easy way to compare similar things and decide on a superlative based upon small matches between characters/people.

Fill-in-the-Blank Comparatives (er / est): This short activity has the students practice comparative and superlative grammar points by completing a fill-in-the-blank worksheet.

Gesturest Student, The (est): Students must gesture for each other while the lucky one in the group watches and picks the one which is ____~est of the group.

Great Superlative Challenge, The (all): Students use their brains to compete to find the most extreme examples of each adjective and then use comparitive forms to defeat the opposing teams.

Got Happy? (er / est): Students listen to a student-friendly article on happiness and fill-in the missing words. Then, they complete a comparative worksheet followed by a class discussion about other various ‘happy’ topics.

Horse Races: Students bet money on their ability to correct sentences which may or may not have mistakes.

J-Pop Comparisons (er / est): This 2-step activity introduces students to comparisons using Japanese musicians.

Let's Compare (irregular): This a whole lesson devised on scaffolding students through the comparative grammar point.

Manga Reading (all): If you can't beat them, join them. Students practice their reading skills by reading a short English comic.

Mostest Star (irregular): Students interview one another about Japanese pop stars using irregular comparative sentences.

Ninja Gaiden (all): Students try to level-up their ninja abilities by creating comparative sentences to receive chances to shoot shurikens at a bullseye on the chalkboard.

Pokemon Top Trumps (er): This fun card game uses Pokemon Top trumps to excite the students to practice and understand comparative and superlatives.

Scientific Experiment (all): Students make comparative guesses and win a game of dice for answers. This is a review game for all comparative grammar points.

Soccer or Baseball: A light-hearted gambling game using the comparative phrase "I like X better than Y." The students must compete to guess the teachers preferences.

Super Mario RPG (all): A Mario adventure board game in which students fight various enemies to win coins and power-up items, declaring themselves to be 'stronger', 'better', or 'more dangerous' than the bad guys.

T&A Wrestling (all): This no-prep activity has students facing off against each other in various comparing competitions and/or physical attributes.

Top Trumps (er / est): Students use superlatives/comparatives to guess their partner's secret character card.

Web Quest Challenge (all): The mission of this internet adventure is to complete a series of online challenges designed specifically for Japanese junior high school students.

Which Bingo Out? (er): Students interview each other using the ‘which’ grammar point, and then play bingo. The goal of the bingo game is to NOT get bingo.

Which Is Better (irregular er / er): Students interview each other about which of two things is better, stronger, harder etc.

Which Is More Interesting (more / most): Students try to fill out their worksheets by asking comparitive questions to their friends.

Your Romance Horoscope (er): Students silently read through the quiz, or listen to the teacher read through it. Each question has four choices to choose from. Once completed, they can find out their romance horoscope.

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This page was last modified on Tuesday, November 15, 2011 01:34:12 PM