Comparatives & Superlatives – English Grammar Exercises for A2
You are showing your family photo album to a friend and describing what your relatives look like. Read the sentences carefully and choose the best option (A, B, C, or D) to complete each comparison.
1 “This is my older brother, Mark. As you can see, he is much ______ me.”
(A) more tall than
(B) taller than
(C) the tallest
(D) tall than
2 “My sister Sarah is only 150 cm. She is ______ my mother.”
(A) more short than
(B) short than
(C) shorter than
(D) the shortest
3 “In this photo, my cousin looks very mature, but actually, I am ______ him.”
(A) older than
(B) more old than
(C) oldest
(D) older that
4 “Look at the baby! He is exactly two years ______ my little sister.”
(A) young than
(B) the youngest
(C) more young than
(D) younger than
5 “My uncle loves eating fast food, so his body is a bit ______ my father’s.”
(A) heavier than
(B) heavyer than
(C) more heavy than
(D) heaviest
6 “My aunt goes to the gym every day. She is much ______ she was last year.”
(A) thiner than
(B) more thin than
(C) thinner than
(D) the thinnest
7 “This is my sister on her wedding day. Her dress makes her look ______ a movie star!”
(A) beautifuler than
(B) more beautiful than
(C) most beautiful
(D) beautiful than
8 “My grandfather was a very good-looking man in his youth. He was ______ any actor in the 1960s.”
(A) handsomer than
(B) handsome than
(C) most handsome
(D) more handsome than
9 “My brother has blond hair, but my hair is ______ his.”
(A) darker than
(B) more dark than
(C) the darkest
(D) dark than
10 “My sister’s hair goes down to her waist. Her hair is much ______ mine.”
(A) more long than
(B) longest than
(C) longer than
(D) long than
11 “I have straight hair, but my mother’s hair is completely different. It is ______ mine.”
(A) more curly than
(B) curlyer than
(C) curly than
(D) curlier than
12 “My dad has huge hands. They are much ______ my hands.”
(A) biger than
(B) bigger than
(C) more big than
(D) biggest
13 “My twin brother and I are not exactly the same. I am not ______ him.”
(A) as tall as
(B) taller
(C) more tall as
(D) tall than
14 “My sister lost a lot of weight recently. She is ______ me now.”
(A) slimer than
(B) more slim than
(C) the slimmest
(D) slimmer than
15 “My little cousin is so cute. She is ______ a princess in this pink dress!”
(A) prettier than
(B) more pretty than
(C) prettyer than
(D) pretty than
16 “My brother lifts weights every day. He is much ______ my dad now.”
(A) strong than
(B) stronger than
(C) more strong than
(D) the strongest
17 “My dad is 190 cm tall! He is ______ my mom, who is only 155 cm.”
(A) very taller than
(B) much taller than
(C) more taller than
(D) many taller than
18 “My brother’s eyesight is very bad and he wears thick glasses. My eyesight is much ______ his.”
(A) gooder than
(B) more good than
(C) better than
(D) best than
19 “I have some grey hair now. My hair looks ______ it did in my twenties.”
(A) badder than
(B) worse than
(C) more bad than
(D) worst than
20 “I am ______ my sister, but my brother is the tallest person in the family.”
(A) tall than
(B) more tall
(C) tallest
(D) taller than
ANSWER KEY & EXPLANATIONS
1 Key: (B) taller than
Explanation: – Why it’s correct: “Tall” is a 1-syllable adjective. To compare two people, we add “-er” and use the word “than”.
- Common Mistake (A): We do not use “more” with 1-syllable adjectives.
- Structural Error (D): Missing the “-er”.
2 Key: (C) shorter than
Explanation: – Why it’s correct: “Short” is a 1-syllable adjective. We add “-er” + “than”.
- Common Mistake (A): “More short” is incorrect.
- Meaning Trap (D): The superlative “the shortest” is used for 3 or more people, but here we are only comparing Sarah to her mother (2 people).
3 Key: (A) older than
Explanation: – Why it’s correct: “Old” -> “older” + “than”.
- Structural Error (D): We must use “than” (not “that”) to connect the two subjects.
4 Key: (D) younger than
Explanation: – Why it’s correct: Comparing the baby’s age to the sister’s age requires “younger than”.
- Common Mistake (C): “More young” is invalid.
5 Key: (A) heavier than
Explanation: – Why it’s correct: “Heavy” is a 2-syllable adjective ending in “y”. The rule is to change the “y” to “i” and add “-er” (heavier).
- Spelling Error (B): Keeping the “y” (heavyer) is a spelling mistake.
- Common Mistake (C): We do not use “more” for adjectives ending in “y”.
6 Key: (C) thinner than
Explanation: – Why it’s correct: “Thin” ends in a Consonant-Vowel-Consonant (CVC) pattern (h-i-n). We must double the final consonant before adding “-er” (thinner).
- Spelling Error (A): Missing the double “n”.
- Common Mistake (B): “More thin” is invalid.
7 Key: (B) more beautiful than
Explanation: – Why it’s correct: “Beautiful” is a long adjective (3 syllables). For adjectives with 2 or more syllables (not ending in “y”), we use “more + adjective + than”.
- Common Mistake (A): We never add “-er” to long adjectives.
8 Key: (D) more handsome than
Explanation: – Why it’s correct: “Handsome” is a 2-syllable adjective not ending in “y”, so we use “more handsome”.
- Common Mistake (A): “Handsomer” is technically used in some old dialects, but “more handsome” is the standard CEFR rule for modern English.
9 Key: (A) darker than
Explanation: – Why it’s correct: “Dark” is a 1-syllable adjective. Add “-er”.
- Common Mistake (B): “More dark” is incorrect.
10 Key: (C) longer than
Explanation: – Why it’s correct: “Long” -> “longer”.
- Structural Error (A): “More long” is invalid.
11 Key: (D) curlier than
Explanation: – Why it’s correct: “Curly” ends in “y”. Change “y” to “i” and add “-er”.
- Spelling Error (B): “Curlyer” is incorrect spelling.
- Common Mistake (A): “More curly” is invalid.
12 Key: (B) bigger than
Explanation: – Why it’s correct: “Big” is a classic CVC word (b-i-g). You must double the “g” (bigger).
- Spelling Error (A): “Biger” is incorrect.
13 Key: (A) as tall as
Explanation: – Why it’s correct: When comparing two people who are equal (or negative: not equal), we use the structure “as + adjective + as”. “I am not as tall as him” means “I am shorter than him.”
- Structural Error (C): “More tall as” mixes two different grammar rules.
14 Key: (D) slimmer than
Explanation: – Why it’s correct: “Slim” follows the CVC rule (s-l-i-m). Double the “m” -> slimmer.
- Spelling Error (A): “Slimer” is incorrect.
15 Key: (A) prettier than
Explanation: – Why it’s correct: “Pretty” ends in “y”. Change “y” to “i” and add “-er”.
- Common Mistake (B): “More pretty” is invalid.
16 Key: (B) stronger than
Explanation: – Why it’s correct: “Strong” is 1 syllable. Add “-er”.
- Structural Error (C): “More strong” is incorrect.
17 Key: (B) much taller than
Explanation: – Why it’s correct: To emphasize a big difference in a comparative sentence, we use “much” before the comparative adjective (“much taller”).
- Common Mistake (A): We cannot use “very” with comparatives (we say “very tall”, not “very taller”).
- Structural Error (C): “More taller” is a double comparative and is strictly forbidden in English grammar.
18 Key: (C) better than
Explanation: – Why it’s correct: The adjective “good” is irregular. Its comparative form is “better”.
- Common Mistake (A): “Gooder” does not exist in English.
19 Key: (B) worse than
Explanation: – Why it’s correct: The adjective “bad” is irregular. Its comparative form is “worse”.
- Common Mistake (A): “Badder” does not exist in standard English.
20 Key: (D) taller than
Explanation: – Why it’s correct: In the first half of the sentence, you are only comparing two people (I and my sister), so you must use the comparative “taller than”. The second half correctly uses the superlative “tallest” because it compares the brother to the entire family (3 or more people).
GRAMMAR POINTS TO REMEMBER
- The Core Rule: When you put exactly two people (or things) side-by-side to talk about their differences, you must use Comparative Adjectives + “than”.
- Example: “I am taller than my brother.”
- How to form the Comparative:
- 1-syllable adjectives: Add -er. (tall -> taller, short -> shorter).
- CVC Rule: If a short adjective ends in Consonant-Vowel-Consonant, double the last letter. (big -> bigger, thin -> thinner).
- 2-syllable adjectives ending in “y”: Change “y” to “i” and add -er. (heavy -> heavier, pretty -> prettier).
- Long adjectives (2+ syllables): Do not change the word. Put more in front of it. (beautiful -> more beautiful, handsome -> more handsome).
- Irregular Adjectives: You must memorize these because they break all the rules.
- Good -> better
- Bad -> worse
- Far -> farther / further
- The “Double Comparative” Mistake: Never use “more” and “-er” at the same time.
- Wrong: “He is more taller than me.”
- Right: “He is taller than me.” (Use “much taller” if you want to emphasize a big difference).