Comparatives and Superlatives

A couple of activities to help students practice the comparative and superlative forms. This lesson doesn’t teach those forms; it’s just to give students a chance to use them.

Objectives

• To give controlled and free practice in using the comparative and superlative forms of adjectives

Materials

• Compare and Contrast PDAs worksheet [DOC]
• Dice Template from Karn TV

Worksheet

Hand out the worksheet [DOC]. This worksheet presents a table comparing the features of three smartphones/PDAs. Students then have to answer questions that are presented with the comparative form: Which device is the fastest? Which is the biggest? I tried to make the questions a mix of fact and opinion so it’s a little more interesting than similar worksheets. I left it in DOC form so that you can adjust it any way that you want.

Comparison Dice

This activity provides less controlled practice in using the comparative and superlative by using dice. The idea is to take two dice that have words written on them. The words should come from one category so that they are comparable. For example, both die should have the names of countries or animals or sports or foods or whatever else on them. This is a great way to review vocabulary on a theme, by the way.

If you don’t have dice like this, this is my favorite Dice Template on the ‘net. Print it out, write your words on it and then cut around the outside lines, put glue where it says “Glue” and fold it into a box/dice shape. If you glue the paper to light card paper, they will be pretty durable.

Now, students take turns to roll both dice. Then they must make a sentence comparing the two words on the dice. So if you’re doing foods, they might roll “chocolate” and “sausages”. So they could say, “chocolate is sweeter than sausages.”, “Sausages are more expensive than chocolate.”,”Sausages are healthier than chocolates,” and so on.

Alternatively, you can write “Superlative” or “-EST” once on each die. If the student rolls “Superlative”, he or she must make a sentence using the word on the other die. “Chocolate is the sweetest food”, or “Chocolate is the least healthy food in the world.”

In terms of making the activity more authentic (Who compares chocolate and sausages?), think carefully about the words you put on the dice. Make sure they are naturally comparable and that students know enough about the words to know how to compare them.

These just a couple of activities for practicing the comparative. What are your favorite activities?