Name: Smart Phrases to compare & Contrast in English? Adjectives | Degree of Comparison | Grammar Lesson
Uploaded: 2018-03-20T15:34:52.000Z
Duration: 11 min 44 s
Description: Thousands of YouTube videos with English-Chinese subtitles! Now you can learn to understand native speakers, expand your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation...

The imperative

Hello everyone, welcome back to yet another very interesting lesson. I had a wonderful

Past simple

weekend, wanna know why? Well, I managed to read two of my favourite books. Now I'll tell

The comparative

you what, this book was a lot more interesting than this one. Or shall I say, this book was

not as interesting as this one. Which one do you think is correct? Confused? well, I

would also be confused however you don't need to be confused anymore because today's lesson

is gonna deal with how we can talk about similarities and differences when we are going to draw

or compare adjectives of various things. And of course, learning English is all about saying

different things in the right way or in different ways, correct? So today's lesson is going

to show you how you can compare and contrast various different adjectives while you are

talking. So stay tuned, I am Ceema and I'll show you how to compare and contrast.

Alright, now when we are comparing and contrasting as children when we were learning English,

what did we learn? We were always told about using the positive, the comparative

and the superlative forms of adjectives, right? Well for those who don't know what positive,

comparative and superlative degrees or forms of adjectives are. They are using adjectives

in different forms. So for example, you say, big which is the positive degree, which in

the comparative degree turns to bigger and in the superlative, it becomes biggest. So

if I am smart, you are smarter and someone else could be smartest, right? However, as

I told you awhile ago, learning and speaking good English is always using English or using

new words in various different ways, right? So, we don't always have to use the positive,

comparative or the superlative forms of adjectives. You can actually use or compare adjectives

in various different ways and that's what I'm going to be dealing with today.

So let's see how we can do that. Now sometimes, we need to talk about a huge difference in

various adjectives. A huge difference not a small difference but a huge difference.

So using these forms may not do justice to the way of speaking. So, we need to use some

different words, what are they? Okay, look at this sentence, it says the demand for clothes

this month is much higher than last month. Over here, you are going to use the word,

much before the comparative degree because we don't know the exact difference between

the sales or the demand for clothes between this month and the month that just went by.

So, when we're talking about a huge difference but we don't really know what the exact difference

is, we always use the word, much before the comparative form of the adjective. Okay, now

there is another way of talking about a huge difference. You could use a word or two words

which are a lot. So, he is a lot stronger than you. There is a difference between the

strength that you possess and that your brother possesses, right? But you don't know the exact

difference but it is a huge difference. So, you can say, he is a lot stronger than you.

Okay, isn't that a more interesting way of putting it? Right, the third way of doing

that is by using another set of words which could be more. So you can say this watch is

more cheaper than the one you wore last night because over here again, you don't have

to just use the comparative form. You can use a word like, more in front of the comparative

form. So, this watch is more cheaper than the one you wore last night. so, in all these

three sentences, you can see how you're actually talking about a huge difference between the

adjectives or between things but instead of just using the comparative form, you are trying

to make your English sound a little bit better by using words like, much, a lot and more

and there is another word you can use. Okay, if two people or say me and my sister, you

know we're very different, there is a huge difference, right? So you could simply say,

we are very different or you could use the word, far different. so when we're talking

about a huge difference, in addition to using these words, which is much, a lot and more,

you could also use very different or far different, okay.

Now, when we are going to talk about a small difference, what words are we going to use?

Now there are very interesting ways of also bringing about the contrast and comparison

between adjectives with a small difference. Okay, so what are they? The first sentence

says sales in December were slightly higher than sales this month. so a very small difference,

so let's say, sales in December were may be £75000 but may be you know it was a little

lower this month, a slight difference, right? so, instead of using lower which is the comparative

form, you can simply say, sales in December were slightly and then you use the comparative

form of the verb, of the adjective, I'm sorry. So instead of just using the comparative

form again, you can use a word like slightly to show the small difference between the adjectives.

Alright, now our second sentence deals with another word or two words rather, which is

a bit to show a small difference, you could say, you are a bit taller than me probably

half an inch, right? It's a small difference but you don't wanna talk about inches, that's

too technical, right? So you'll just say, you're a bit taller than me or you're slightly

Okay, the third sentence is, these are not much more prettier than those. Okay so when

you are saying not much more, again you are talking about a difference which is very,

very tiny. A very small difference, okay that's when you say, these are not much more prettier

than those or these are not much more expensive than the one you wore yesterday.

Okay, so these are the different ways in which you will talk about comparing or contrasting

adjectives when you want to talk about a huge difference between adjectives or a small difference.

Sometimes, you also want to make comparisons even when there is no difference. So instead

of being boring and talking about you know technical things like a person's height or

their weight or their age, you can use some words that show that there is no difference

between people's height, weight or let's say any other adjective that you can possibly

Okay, so if we're talking about comparing even though there is no difference, there

are some more interesting words or ways of speaking to do that. So we got a sentence

which says, he's exactly the same age as my brother. So, when you say the same age or

the same height, we're talking about no difference but we don't wanna talk about the same height.

We don't wanna get into the technicality. So we may just use the word same followed

by whatever you're comparing. So in this case, may be you or the guy you're talking to is

6 feet tall and so is your brother. So, he's exactly the same age as my brother.

Okay, moving on, to the next way of showing no difference is by using a phrase which is,

more or less. More or less again denotes no difference which means it's very similar,

right? So, the flowers are more or less the same colour as our curtains. so may be your

curtains are a nice shade of pink, a soft pink and the flowers you're looking at, that

you're comparing happen to be the same colour but you don't wanna talk about the colour

because you don't know what the colour really is. So you will simply say, the flowers are

more or less the same colours as our curtains.

Okay, the next sentence compares food. We all love to compare food, right? This food's

more bland, that food's more spicy, that food's more tastier but we can compare even there

is no difference. How do you do that? So, talking about Thai food, so Thai food is similar

to Chinese food. So when there is no difference between the two foods, you can use a phrase

which says, similar to. So, Thai food is similar to Chinese food which in other words, means

that there is no difference between the two foods, okay.

Well, that's it from me on this lesson about how you can compare and contrast and thus

effectively bring about the similarities and differences when you are using adjectives.

I'm sure if you use them in the right way while talking your English is going to definitely

improve. So I'll be back with some more lessons, until then, it's me saying keep practising,