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Versión: Septiembre 2012
Revisor: Darlene González Miy
Word groups punctual review – Comparative and superlative adjectives and correct tense by Jonathan W. Fleeton
Can you name the following occupations?
Read these sentences and match them with a picture.
•
•
•
•
A
A
A
A
person
person
person
person
that
that
that
that
works with electricity is an electrician.
bakes bread or cakes is a baker.
contracts jobs or work is a contractor.
navigates an airplane or a ship is a pilot.
You probably know a good number of professions already so we will just review a few showing the
suffixes.
Type of work
a person that
a person that
a person that
a person that
a person that
a person that
a person that
a person that
a person that
a person that
a person that
works with accounts
bakes bread or cakes
works in a bank
works with plumbing
works in carpentry
sells things
contracts jobs or work
dances for a living
sings for a living
acts for a living
drives for a living
Profession/Job (noun)
Accountant
Baker
Banker
Plumber
Carpenter
Vendor
Contractor
Dancer
Singer
Actor
Driver
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ID0003_M1AA1L2_word
Versión: Septiembre 2012
Revisor: Darlene González Miy
a person
a
person
industry
a person
a person
a person
a person
a person
a person
a person
that
that
that
that
that
that
that
that
that
works in the beauty
works with electricity
constructs things
navigates
navigates planes or ships
heals people
looks after sick people
teaches people
surveys things
Beautician
Electrician
Construction worker
Navigator
Pilot
Doctor
Nurse
Teacher
Surveyor
Table 1. Occupations, professions and jobs
We know that nouns are the names of people, places or things. But if we don’t use verbs in our
sentences, then the person, place or thing is stagnant. It has no movement. It is doing nothing.
Look at this sentence.
Maria is.
Actually… this is not a complete sentence because there is no predicate. The predicate tells us
something about the subject of the sentence, Maria. We either need another verb to make a
complete sentence or an adjective to make a complete sentence because is is the verb to be.
Maria is., by itself means nothing. It leaves the listener or reader with the question Maria is. WHAT?
What is Maria? Is she talking? Is she working? Is she big? Is she slow? You must make a
complete sentence so that the listener or reader has a picture of what you are talking about.
Although the verb to be is included in the sentence there is no action verb. Let’s add the verb work
to this sentence. Because we have used the verb to be we must use the verb work in the gerund
(continuous/progressive) form.
Maria is working.
Now it makes sense. You know what Maria is doing. You now have a picture (useful for description
texts). We could use an adjective too. This would also complete the sentence because the verb “is”
is in the original sentence.
Maria is big.
Every simple sentence must have a subject and a predicate. Complex sentences may have more
than one subject and more than one predicate. The subject is who or what the sentence is about
and the predicate tells us something about that.
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ID0003_M1AA1L2_word
Versión: Septiembre 2012
Revisor: Darlene González Miy
To find the subject and predicate in a simple sentence you just look for the first verb. If you cover
the word or words that precede the first verb and then ask the question who or what, the answer is
the subject.
Let’s look at this example.
John is going to the beach.
This is a complete sentence. It has both a subject and a predicate.
What is the subject? Let’s find the first verb in the sentence. The
first verb is is. So if you read, is going to the beach and ask the
question Who or What, your answer, John, is the subject of this
sentence.
How we use verbs determines the tense of what we are trying to say and how or what you are saying is
interpreted.
Let’s look at different forms of verbs. There are two types of verbs, as I’m sure you all know: Regular
verbs and Irregular verbs.
Regular verbs change their tense by adding the letters ed. Irregular verbs are the tricky ones. There
are no rules for changing the tense of Irregular verbs. You just have to remember them. We need to
focus on how the verbs change and in what tense you use them.
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2
3
4
5
6
7
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Base Verb
play
walk
cook
listen
talk
write
drive
go
Infinitive
to play
to walk
to cook
to listen
to talk
to write
to drive
to go
Simple Past
played
walked
cooked
listened
talked
wrote
drove
went
Past Participle
played
walked
cooked
listened
Talked
written
driven
gone
Gerund
playing
walking
cooking
listening
talking
writing
driving
going
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sistema impreso, electrónico, magnético, incluyendo el fotocopiado, la fotografía, la grabación o un sistema de recuperación de la información, sin la autorización por
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ID0003_M1AA1L2_word
Versión: Septiembre 2012
Revisor: Darlene González Miy
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1
0
make
take
to make
to take
made
took
made
Taken
making
taking
Table 2. Verb forms
The verb in its base form is used in the present simple or simple present. It is the original form of the
verb. All other forms of the verb come from this base form. Remember too, that the base verbs
change for third person. Here are some examples of a base verb with subject/personal pronouns.
Subject/Personal
Pronoun
I
You
He
She
It
We
You
They
Base form of the
verb
play
walk
cooks
listens
talks
write
drive
go
Table 3. Third person verbs
Infinitives are normally used after the main verb in the sentence. To use the infinitive form of the verb
you must use the preposition to. Look at these examples. The main verb is in green and the
infinitive verb is in blue.
I want to play soccer.
You like to walk in the park.
He likes to cook Italian dishes.
She wants to listen to the news.
It asked to talk.
We have to write an essay.
You plan to drive a long way.
They want to go home.
The Simple Past or Past Simple is used to show actions that have happened in the past. The base verb
changes in form. For Regular verbs it is just a matter of adding ‘ed’ to the base verb. For Irregular
verbs, as was stated earlier, there are no rules. You must memorize them. Look at these examples.
Present
I play soccer.
You walk in the park.
Past
I played soccer.
You walked in the park.
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ID0003_M1AA1L2_word
Versión: Septiembre 2012
Revisor: Darlene González Miy
He cooks Italian
dishes.
She
listens to the
It
talks to me.
news.
We write essays.
You drive a long way.
They go home.
He cooked Italian
dishes.
She
listened to the
It
talked to me.
news.
We wrote essays.
You drove a long way.
They went home.
Table 4. Present and Past verbs
Past Participles are used with the Perfect tense form. You use the Past Participle with the modal verb
have. To make the Perfect tense past, you simply change the modal verb have to had. Look at these
examples.
Present
I play soccer.
You walk in the park.
He cooks Italian
dishes.
She
listens to the
news.
It talks to me.
We write essays.
You drive a long way.
They go home.
Present Perfect (Past
Participle Use)
I have played soccer.
You have walked in the
park.
He
has cooked Italian
dishes.
She
has listened to the
news.
It has talked to me.
We have written essays.
You have driven a long way.
They have gone home.
Past Perfect (Past Participle
Use)
I had played soccer.
You had walked in the
park.
He
had cooked Italian
dishes.
She
had listened to the
news.
It had talked to me.
We had written essays.
You had driven a long
way. had gone home.
They
Table 5. Perfect Tenses
The Gerund form is used in the continuous/progressive tense. It is used with the verb to be. This
form of the verb may be used with Present Continuous/Progressive or Past Continuous/Progressive.
Some schools use the word Continuous while others use Progressive. Both are correct.
To change sentences in the Gerund form (Continuous/Progressive) you simply change the tense of
the verb to be.
Present
I am
You are
He is
She is
It is
We are
You are
They are
Past
I was
You were
He was
She was
It was
We were
You were
They were
Table 6. Past of be
Present
Gerund Use Present
Gerund Use Past
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ID0003_M1AA1L2_word
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Revisor: Darlene González Miy
I play soccer.
You walk in the park.
He cooks Italian dishes.
She listens to the news.
It talks to me.
We write essays.
You drive a long way.
They go home.
I am playing soccer.
You are walking in the park.
He is cooking Italian dishes.
She is listening to the news.
It is talking to me.
We are writing essays.
You are driving a long way.
They are going home.
I was playing soccer.
You were walking in the park.
He was cooking Italian dishes.
She was listening to the news.
It was talking to me.
We were writing essays.
You were driving a long way.
They were going home.
Table 7. Gerunds
As indicated, you will be studying the sentence tenses at a later date. For now, it is important that you
know how to change the verbs and when to change them. Remember, there are no rules for Irregular
Verbs. YOU MUST REMEMBER THEM!
Adjectives What are adjectives? They’re description words. They describe things. Using adjectives provides your
listener or reader with a mental picture of the picture that you are trying paint.
Let’s look at this sentence without adjectives.
The lake had a beach and was surrounded by trees.
You can visualize a picture because a description of the lake has been provided. However, this is not
the picture that you really wanted to present.
Now, read this sentence and your picture will change.
The lake had a long white sandy beach and was surrounded by beautiful lush green trees.
By using adjectives we have changed the picture that other people will mentally see.
Comparative and superlative There are three forms of adjectives. Adjectives, in English, normally come before the noun that they are
describing. We will touch on the three forms here.
The base form of the adjective is used to describe things. Example: A beautiful flower. – A tall building.
– A happy baby.
The comparative form of the adjective is used to compare things.
Example: My cat is bigger than your cat. (comparing two cats)
Susan is more intelligent than Karen. (comparing two people) Canada is larger than Mexico. (comparing
two countries)
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ID0003_M1AA1L2_word
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Revisor: Darlene González Miy
Here are the rules for changing adjectives to comparatives and superlatives.
Adjective
Most one and two syllable
adjectives
Young, loud, old
One syllable, “e” ending
Late,
One syllable, consonant-vowelconsonant
big, hot, thin
Adjectives ending in “y”.
Tiny, juicy, happy
Two or more syllables
Magical, beautiful, dangerous
Comparative
Add “er”
Younger, louder, older
Superlative
Add “est”
Youngest, loudest, oldest
Add “r”
Later,
Double the consonant and add
“er”.
Bigger, hotter, thinner
Change “y” for “i” and add “er”
Tinier, juicier, happier
Add “more” and keep the same
form
More beautiful, more intelligent,
more dangerous
Double the consonant and add
“est”.
Biggest, hottest, thinnest
Change “y” for “i” and add “est”
Tiniest, juiciest, happiest
Add “most” and keep the same
form
Most beautiful, most intelligent,
most dangerous
Table 8. Comparatives and superlatives rules
How to use comparatives and superlatives
Comparatives
Comparatives are used to compare two things. You can use sentences
with than, or you can use a conjunction like but.
Jose is taller than Pedro. Pedro is tall, but Jose is taller.
Superlatives
Superlatives are used to compare more than two things. Superlative
sentences usually use the, because there is only one superlative.
Adriana is the tallest in the class.
Francisco is tall and Pedro is taller but Adriana is the tallest.
Table 9. Use of comparatives and superlatives
We are going to explore the final word group in this module. That is prepositions. Prepositons can be
difficult to learn to use properly but with practice they will become second nature.
What are prepositions? They are location words. They tell the reader or the listener where something is
in space. Without prepositions the reader or the listener doesn’t know where the thing your are referring
to is or in what direction to turn, etc. etc. etc. Prepositions also link nouns, pronouns and phrases to
other words in a sentence.
Read this sentence:
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Read this sentence:
I will meet you 4:00 p.m. the bank.
This sentence makes no sense at all. The
nouns and pronouns and verbs are there but
without the prepositions it will make no sense to
the reader or the listener.
With the correct prepositions the reader will
understand exactly what you are saying. Now
read the sentence with the use of prepositions.
I will meet you at 4:00 p.m. in front of the bank.
Note that the preposition at is a normal preposition. The group of words in front of is a prepositional
phrase. A prepositional phrase, like phrasal verbs, are groups of words that are used together to
have special meanings.
There are about 150 prepositions so remembering them will not be difficult. Many of them are used
frequently but most of them are used infrequently. The prepositions of, to, and in are among the 10
most frequently used words in English.
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October 25th from http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:FEMA_-_33709__FEMA_and_contractors_inspect_mobile_homes_in_California.jpg under Public domain
license.
Kertesz, J. (2005). Baker's wife [digital picture]. Retrieved on October 25th from
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Baker%27s_wife.jpg under Creative
CommonsGeneric Attribution 2.0 Free cultural Approved for Works.
Watson, J. (2007). USAF pilot [digital picture]. Retrieved on October 25th from
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:USAF_pilot.jpg under Public domain license.
Wikimedia Commons. (2009). Beach boy summer time 2009 [digital picture].
Retrieved on October 25th from
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Beach_boy_summer_time_2009.jpg under Creative
Commons Free Cultural Approved for Works.
Wikimedia Commons. (2005). Electrician Working [digital picture]. Retrieved on
October 25th from http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Electrician_Working.jpg under
Creative Commons Generic Attribution 2.5 Free cultural Approved for Works.
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escrito de la Universidad Virtual del Estado de Guanajuato.