Reference · module 13
Bigger and best
Everything this module explains, on one page.
bigger than
Compare two things.
- Short adjectives add -er: big becomes bigger, old older, cheap cheaper. One or two syllables usually go this way.
- Longer ones take more instead: more expensive, more interesting, more difficult. Never more cheaper — one form or the other, never both.
- than joins the two, always: bigger than, more expensive than. It is not optional and it never changes shape.
The mistake you are about to make
more cheaper
cheaper
Two ways of building a comparative exist, and they get used at once for emphasis. English allows exactly one: either -er or more, never both.
the biggest
Say which one is the most of all.
- Short adjectives take -est: the biggest, the oldest, the cheapest. Long ones take the most: the most expensive.
- the is compulsory. biggest city without it is not English — the superlative points at one specific thing, and the is what points.
- After it, in for a place and of for a group: the biggest city in Europe, the best of the three. Two prepositions, two situations.
The mistake you are about to make
the biggest city of Europe
the biggest city in Europe
Of feels like the natural partner for a superlative, and for groups it is — the best of the three. A place takes in: the biggest city in Europe.
as tall as
Say two things are the same, or that they are not.
- as tall as means exactly the same height: He is as tall as his brother. The adjective in the middle never changes form.
- The negative says less: This isn't as expensive as that. It is a gentler way of saying cheaper, and English uses it a lot.
- the same as needs a noun after it: the same as mine, the same as yesterday. as as needs an adjective. Mixing them is the usual slip.
The mistake you are about to make
He is so tall as his brother.
He's as tall as his brother.
So looks like the right word to open a comparison of equals. The frame is fixed: as … as, the same word at both ends.
Describing a place
Compare two towns, two jobs or two flats.
- busy, quiet, modern, historic, crowded, expensive. Six adjectives and any two places can be compared.
- much and a lot strengthen a comparison: much bigger, a lot cheaper. very cannot do this: very bigger is not English.
- When two adjectives meet, opinion comes before fact: a lovely old town, not an old lovely town. English feels this order without teaching it.
The mistake you are about to make
very bigger
much bigger
Very is the all-purpose intensifier, so it reaches for the comparative too. Comparatives take much or a lot: much bigger, a lot cheaper.