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      Modifying comparatives and superlatives
      Submitted by nouamaneer on 29 March, 2011 - 00:04

      Dear list,

      I got a lesson that I did not know how to explain it. It's about modifying comparatives and superlatives. Is there anyone around who has ever thought such a lesson? are there any references about that?

       

      Thanks,

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      TeachEd's picture
      TeachEd
      Intensifiers
      Submitted on 29 March, 2011 - 10:00

      Comparatives can usually be modified using intensifiers such as slightly, a bit, a little, a lot, much, far, etc.

      e.g. It's much harder than you think!

            It was a bit more expensive than I thought.

      You could have students categorising these intensifiers into two groups, low intensity and high intensity. For controlled practice, have a gap-fill where an adjective prompt is given and they have to write the comparative form using an intensifier. Finally, for freer practice, have them comparing two related pictures using modified comparatives (FCE part 2 type task)

      Not sure if you can modify superlatives. Do you mean something like:

      He's by far the brightest student in the class ??? Are there any others?

      nouamaneer's picture
      nouamaneer
      Thanks for your quick reply
      Submitted on 29 March, 2011 - 15:31

      Thanks first for your quick reply. You are right on the first half of your reply. Comparative adjectives can be modified in that way using intensifiers. Others can be also used to modify comparatives, example: an awful lot/ a far sight/ marginally better, etc.

       

      Superlatives too can be modified. They could be modified by expressions such as: the best by far/ by miles/ by a mile/ by a long way. Yet you can say: the very best.Note the position of the modifiers in those cases. My source places those modifiers right after the superlatives in the former, not before. And some of my students were confused when it came to do that themselves. I felt awkward too as I could find no way to justify my positioning the same way as my source. 

       

      My problem was and still in finding a framework that is teachable and learnable?

      Victor Alva Alayza's picture
      Victor Alva Alayza
      Intensifiers
      Submitted on 30 March, 2011 - 03:31

      Why don´t you begin with the most basic? e.g. A YYYY is expensive but an XXXX is much more expensive. YYYY is good but XXXX is much better, then you might wish to gradually adjust difficulty and new intensifiers as well. :-)

      may48's picture
      may48
      modifying superlatives
      Submitted on 6 January, 2012 - 18:59

      greetings everyone 

      I've read the explanation of modifying  superlatives but I need more explanation coz I have a class after 2 weeks 

      need ur help it's the first time for me to be a teacher :(