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

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.

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.

Gasoline prices are more expensive than they were last year. Gasoline prices are more expensive than they were last year. 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. Okay, so now let's take a look at some negative examples. So, how do we make comparisons in the negative form? The 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.

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. 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. 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.