Real English series: Comparatives and superlatives

In our Real English series this week we feature two videos where some passers-by answer questions to illustrate the use of comparatives and superlatives in English.

The first video is intended for Básico students. Passers-by answer these questions:

Who's older?
Which is bigger?
Who can cook better?

What's the most beautiful city in the USA?
What's the coldest country in the world?
Which is the biggest town in Ireland?
Which is the longest river in Ireland?
Which is the most beautiful language?



You can read the transcript of the video here.

To revise the grammar behind comparatives and superlatives you can drop by our post Comparatives and school subjects, where we show an interactive book by Collège Marc Chagall with all the rules and lots of exercises.

You can also read Joanne's Rudling's entry about the 1:1:1 spelling rule on her Spelling Blog, where she gives us clear rules on when to double the final consonant in adjectives when forming the comparative and superlative.

The second video is a bit harder and it is intended for intermediate students. A passer-by answers the questions What's the best/worst decision you have ever made?

The same interview with subtitles can be watched in the second half of the video clip.



You can do an interactive exercise on the Real English site here.

Self-study activity:
Record yourself answering the question What's the best/worst decision you have ever made?

One of these things

One of these these things is not like the others is an interactive game by DDeubel that can help students of all levels to activate their written or spoken English while having lots of fun.

Self-study activity:
If possible, get together with a friend or relative who also speaks English, so that you can do the activity orally and you can also share ideas and help each other. If on your own, you always have the option to talk out aloud to yourself or to do the activity in writing.

In the activity, students are presented with four different objects within a category, and they have to say why one object is different from the others. There might be more than one possibility of comparing objects within the same category.

Example:
Category: Things
Objects: a bomb of dynamite, a ball, a jar of beer, and a clock.

A ball is not like the others because you can play football with a ball, but not with the other things.

A clock is not like the others because you can only tell the time with a clock.

There are as many as twelve categories: things, sports, jobs, places, flight, famous people, clothes, names, food, drinks, fruit, abstract ideas.

To make the objects spring up on the slide, you must click around the question mark (?) in the middle of the slide.

Finally, you can enjoy the Sesame Street song the activity is based on.

One Of These Things (Is Not Like The Others)
(Words and Music by Joe Raposo and Jon Stone)

One of these things is not like the others,
One of these things just doesn’t belong,
Can you tell which thing is not like the others
By the time I finish my song?

Did you guess which thing was not like the others?
Did you guess which thing just doesn’t belong?
If you guessed this one is not like the others,
Then you’re absolutely…right!

British records

This is a fun and enjoyable activity to practise the superlatives in English.

Self-study actitivty:
Watch the video that will come up after clicking on the imagine below.
Note down all the superlatives in the captions to help you remember the information about Britian later on. You can freeze the video to do so.
Then try to remember as much about the video as you can.
Use the same superlatives to talk about features in your town, area or country.