How to Use Comparatives to Express Change in English | Learn English Grammar for Beginners

[00:00:00]Hi everybody, my name is Alyssa. In this lesson we're going to look at how to use comparatives to express change. Let's get started. Okay. First I want to talk about just basic comparisons. I want to review this basic English grammar point and how we use comparisons to talk about change on a very very basic level. So let's look at one positive sentence pattern and one negative sentence pattern just to refresh your brain before we get into the rest of today's lesson. So first let's take a look at the positive sentence pattern. To make a basic comparative sentence we have our subject plus is or are depending on the subject if it's singular or plural. Then we have the comparative word and then than than with an A here the spelling here. So a couple of quick examples.

[00:00:51]First, the weather today is colder than it was yesterday. So we are comparing today's weather and yesterday's weather, right? We're saying the weather today is cold-er than it was yesterday. So today's weather temperature is lower is another way to say that. So a very very basic comparative sentence, right? We have the comparative of cold here colder. Okay? One more example.

[00:01:17]Gasoline prices are more expensive than they were last year. Gasoline prices are more expensive than they were last year.

[00:01:25]In this sentence we have a plural subject gasoline prices. That's a plural noun. So we use are. Gasoline prices are now more expensive than they were last year. In this sentence we have the comparative more expensive. Remember when we have a long adjective like expensive or beautiful we don't put ER at the end of the adjective. We use more in front of the adjective to form the comparative form. So that's why we see more expensive in this situation. So, gas prices or gasoline prices are more expensive than they were last year.

[00:02:05]Okay, so now let's take a look at some negative examples. So, how do we make comparisons in the negative form? The pattern is very similar to the positive form, but we include not here and we don't make a change to our adjective, remember. So, let's look at the basic pattern. It's subject and is or are depending on singular or plural subject.

[00:02:29]Not as adjective as blah blah blah, the other information in the sentence. So, remember not as adjective. No change to the adjective. Also, don't forget this as right here. Lots of learners forget to include this as after the adjective.

[00:02:46]So, let's look at some negative examples now. So, the weather today is not as hot as it was yesterday. The weather today is not as hot as it was yesterday. So, here my negative, not as plus my adjective, so not hotter, but just hot.

[00:03:06]And we have one more as and it was yesterday to make the complete comparison. So, this sentence and this sentence say the same thing. We just have different grammatical ways to express this concept. They both communicate the same idea. We just have different ways to communicate that. This uses hot and this uses cold to express this concept. Okay, let's look at one more negative example and then we'll move to how we can use this as kind of the base for expressing gradual change.

[00:03:38]So, our last basic example, gasoline prices are not as cheap as they were last year. Gasoline prices are not as cheap as they were last year. Again, we have are here because the subject is plural. Gasoline prices are again not as adjective as. So, not cheaper, but just cheap. No change to the adjective.

[00:04:01]Gasoline prices are not as cheap as they were last year. Okay? So, again, this sentence expresses the same thing as this sentence. We've just used the opposite adjective. Here we had expensive, here we had cheap. So, we can express the same ideas just with different grammatical patterns. Okay.

[00:04:20]So, now that we've kind of refreshed ourselves about how to create basic comparisons, let's look at the second part of this lesson. So, the second part of this lesson looks at how we use these comparative forms to talk about change that happens gradually. So, gradually means over time or a little bit by a little bit. In these example sentences, in these basic example sentences, we're talking about something that is finished, right? Or something that is true now, right? The weather prices this year and gas prices last year, right?

[00:04:54]But, sometimes we want to talk about change that is continuing or change that is maybe something that has started in the past and it's continuing to change. How do we express that kind of change? We still need to use comparatives to do this, but we make a change in our sentence structure, too. That is by using an ing verb and the comparative form. This expresses a gradual change. So, we have a couple of key vocabulary words that we often use with this kind of pattern. So, they are getting and becoming and growing, and there are some others as we'll talk about a little bit later.

[00:05:38]But, we use these words in this ing part of the pattern before our comparative.

[00:05:45]These are very, very common in this kind of gradual change expression. So, let's take a look at how we do this and what it kind of means to to make this kind of change comparison. So, the first one, the weather is getting colder. The weather is getting colder. Notice here, we have getting before colder, which uses the comparative form. So, not the weather is getting cold, but the weather is getting colder. This colder refers to an earlier point in time. So, for example, if it's 6:00 p.m. and you say the sentence, the weather is getting colder, it means the weather is slowly changing and it is becoming more cold than earlier today.

[00:06:31]That's what it sounds like. That's what we express here. Of course, you might hear people say, the weather is getting cold. In that case, they are not comparing to an earlier point in time.

[00:06:42]They're just commenting, it's getting cold. It is becoming cold now. We don't mean colder than it was earlier, we mean now in this moment. So, the comparison is not there. But, we can talk about a change from an earlier point in time by using this comparative form. So, you might think, well, you just said get and become, getting and becoming. What is the difference there?

[00:07:05]Actually, they have the same meaning, but becoming sounds a little more formal. So, let's look at the second example sentence here, which uses becoming. So, the Earth is becoming hotter. The Earth is becoming hotter.

[00:07:17]So, here we have becoming, so that means the gradual change is happening, and we have hotter. So, in this sentence, again, we have this comparative form, hotter. This means the temperature now, compared to the temperature in the past, is higher, right? So, the temperature now is not just hot, but it's hotter than it was before. That's what we communicate with this comparative sentence. If you say the Earth is becoming hot, it doesn't sound like you're comparing it to a past time. So, this little change does make a big difference in our communication. Okay?

[00:07:54]Let's continue to another example. So, these two examples use this basic ER comparative form, yeah? Now, let's take a look at this comparative form. What do you do when you have a long adjective?

[00:08:08]So, gas prices are getting more expensive. Gas prices are getting more expensive. So, again, we have this comparative, more expensive here. So, this means we are comparing gas prices now and gas prices in the past. We do this by using the comparative more. So, again, you could remove the comparative here. You could say gas prices are getting expensive, which just means in this moment. You're not comparing to a past point in time. But, this is very important to show that you are referencing a past point. You're talking about a past point, thinking about a past point. Okay? Great. Now, let's look at one more example. I wanted to include another example that uses a different verb and kind of a different situation, so you can see how we can kind of build on this grammar pattern. Okay? So, next example is our team is working a lot faster lately. Our team is working a lot faster lately. So, in this sentence, we have the comparative faster. So, this shows faster than before, right? So, the speed now is more than it was before.

[00:09:16]And I have our team is working a lot faster lately. So, this sentence is describing the speed of the team working now and the speed of the team working in the past. And we use the comparative form to show that the speed now is better, right? So, you can use different verbs in this pattern. Basically, just make sure your verb and your comparison kind of match, yeah? So, our team is working faster, right? So, we often use adjectives in the comparative form that measure things. So, they're like things that we can measure with data.

[00:09:56]We'll see this in part three as well.

[00:09:58]So, the comparatives and the corresponding verbs that we use usually measure something. So, for example, we usually use these kinds of patterns with things that measure like time or speed or size, like how big or how small something is. They can measure distance, so how far away something is.

[00:10:18]They can talk about price, as we saw in this example earlier, or temperature, as well. So, we typically use these kinds of patterns with things that we can measure, yeah? So, it's kind of hard sometimes to measure these sort of abstract ideas, like more beautiful or something like that. Sometimes it's hard to measure something like that, but it's easy to measure temperature, right? Or size, or price. So, these are very common adjectives that we use with this pattern. Okay, let's finish part two with a couple of negative examples. We talked about how we make negatives here, and sometimes we use negatives in this ing comparative pattern as well. So, let's take a look at this because there are some differences here between this and our basic comparative pattern with a negative. So, first example with a negative, home prices are not getting cheaper. Home prices are not getting cheaper. So, again, we have this ing plus our comparative, right? Cheaper in this case. So, home prices are not getting cheaper. This means home prices are not growing cheaper, or home prices are not becoming cheaper than they were in the past, right? So, you might want to express something like this if you think like, "Oh gosh, the prices of homes are not changing." In other words, like you want them to be cheap or you want them to be cheaper than they were in the past, but they are not changing.

[00:11:46]So, in these kinds of situations, you might want to use or you might read a negative sentence like this. Home prices are not getting cheaper. So, again, cheaper refers to that past point. So, the price now and the price in the past, it's not getting any cheaper. It's not going down. Okay? One more negative then. The population is not getting smaller. The population is not getting smaller. So, again, because we are using this comparative form, we are comparing the population to now and in the past. This is the comparison and we are saying it is not getting smaller than in the past.

[00:12:24]So, it's basically it's growing is another way to say this. So, again, these kinds of sentences are not as common. We tend to use the positive forms more, but you may see these from time to time. Sometimes people just really want to make it kind of like a negative point to make something a little bit stronger or more emphasized.

[00:12:43]But, this is what they mean. Okay? So, with this in mind, let's go to part three for this lesson. So, in part three, we're going to look at how we repeat our comparatives to emphasize continuing change or to really show that that change is strong, something like that. So, let's look at our basic example. So, first one, it's getting colder and colder. It's getting colder and colder. So, a weather example. We have the same ing here, getting, so becoming, right? But, informal. And then we have colder and colder. So, we always connect these two with and. We always connect comparative and comparative with and. And this emphasizes that the change is continuing a lot. So, it's still a gradual change, but maybe the speed is a little faster, or we just want to express that something is very, very clearly happening. Yeah? So, if you say, "It's getting colder."

[00:13:40]You can express, yes, it's colder than it was before. If you say, "It's getting colder and colder." It sounds like it's happening quickly, right? So, the gradual change is just the the speed of the change is a little faster. Okay?

[00:13:53]Let's look at the next example. The Earth is getting hotter and hotter. So, again, ing comparative and comparative.

[00:14:02]The Earth is getting hotter and hotter.

[00:14:04]So, again, we could say, "The Earth is getting hotter." as we did in section two. If we say, "The Earth is getting hotter and hotter." it sounds like the speed is much faster, or we're really emphasizing that change. Again, we cannot say, "The Earth is getting hot and hot." That's incorrect. We have to use the comparative form. It's hotter and hotter. Okay. Let's look at another example with a different verb now. So, I want to take a look at some different verbs in this position that you can use um to express these kinds of changes.

[00:14:34]So, basically, if your verb matches your comparison, it's going to sound okay.

[00:14:39]So, first example. Our company is growing faster and faster. Our company's growing faster and faster. So, this sounds good, right? The size of the company is increasing, and the pace is also increasing. So, faster and faster.

[00:14:52]Again, comparative form. So, the company is growing faster and faster. Okay. Next one. Gas prices are rising higher and higher. Gas prices are rising. So, to rise here means to go up or to increase.

[00:15:08]Gas prices are rising higher and higher.

[00:15:11]So, again, we're talking about emphasizing the comparison here. Rising higher and higher. Okay. Last example of this.

[00:15:20]The city's population is growing bigger and bigger. City's population is growing bigger and bigger. So again, we are using this repetition, this comparative and comparative to show that there's really like something happening quickly or it's really strong change in some way. So when you hear people use this pattern, this is what it expresses. It's really emphasizing the change is happening fast in a lot of cases or it's a really intense change. So I hope that you found something new in this lesson and that you can use these basic comparisons and this basic kind of grammar to talk about gradual changes and to talk about intense changes by repeating the comparative forms as in part three samples. So I hope that this lesson was helpful for you. Of course, if you have any questions or comments or if you want to practice making some example sentences with this information, please feel free to do so in the comment section of this video. Of course, if you like this lesson, don't forget to give it a thumbs up and subscribe to this channel if you haven't already. Also check us out at EnglishClass101.com for some other things that can help you with your English studies. Thanks very much for watching this lesson and I will see you again soon. Bye.