Comparatives and Superlatives - Black Sheep Press · PDF fileWIP5, Comparatives & Superlatives, second edition 2016 Helen Rippon, Black Sheep Press Ltd. 4 lck heep Press, , Mddleton,

4WIP5, Comparatives & Superlatives, second edition © 2016 Helen Rippon, Black Sheep Press Ltd. Black Sheep Press, 67, Middleton, Cowling, Keighley, W. Yorks, BD22 0DQ, England. Tel. +44 (0)1535 631346; email: [email protected] ; web: www.blacksheeppress.co.uk

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Comparatives and superlatives

Children from the ages of three years to five years rapidly acquire a wide

range of grammatical markers in their language system that enables them to

construct ever more complex sentences.

One of the features emerging at this time is the use of suffixes -er and -est,

attached to adjectives, to change the meaning of the words.

Adjectives ending in -est are known as superlatives, and children should

have mastered use of the superlative by the age of three and a half years.

So, for example, children of this age may say, ‘I want the biggest cake!’ or

‘That’s the kindest monster.’

Adjectives ending in -er are known as comparatives and are used to

compare two or more objects or actions. So, for example, children may say,

‘That’s shorter than this one’ or ‘He’s going faster than you!’

The comparative form develops later than the superlative, at about the age

of five years (Brown, 1973).

Children should be able to understand comparatives and superlatives before

they are able to use them in their own sentences. So, at the age of three

years, a child should be able to respond correctly when asked, ‘Where is the

smallest spider?’ or, ‘Which snake is longer than this one?’

The rules of using comparatives and superlatives can be complex, but

children must learn that:

• -er and -est may be added to adjectives of one syllable such as ‘cold’

(‘colder’ and ‘coldest’) and ‘high’ (‘higher’ and ‘highest’).

• when adjectives have more than one syllable, the words ‘more’ and

‘most’ are used before the adjective to create the comparative and

superlative forms (such as ‘disgusting’ becoming ‘more disgusting’ and

‘most disgusting’ and ‘beautiful’ becoming ‘more beautiful’ and ‘most

beautiful’).

• Children frequently exhibit errors in the early stages of acquiring

comparatives and superlatives. They may, for example, mark them twice,

‘That was the bestest party ever!’

Speech and language therapists (SLTs) who are familiar with the South

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Tyneside Assessment of Syntactic Structures (STASS) will be aware of the

response of many children who, when presented with a picture of a row of

boys of differing sizes and asked to complete a target prompt, use volume

to indicate comparison. Thus, with ‘This boy is little. This boy is big. This boy

is even … [pause for child’s response – hoping for ‘bigger’]. This boy is the

… [pause for child’s response – hoping for ‘biggest’]’. Children who have not

acquired the comparative and superlative forms but who understand what is

required of them may respond, ‘This boy is little. This boy is big. This boy is

big [said loudly].’ Or, ‘This boy is the big [said loudly].’

Immature forms are quite normal and the issues behind them are likely to

resolve themselves spontaneously, but some children will require more

focused input to learn comparative and superlative forms. This is particularly

important now that it is a statutory requirement of the National Curriculum of

England for children in Year 2 to develop use of suffixes -er and -est to form

comparisons of adjectives and adverbs.

It should be noted that some adjectives develop into irregular comparative

and superlative forms, where the word changes completely, and

these are not included in this pack. Examples: ‘much’/‘more’/‘most’;

‘good’/‘better’/‘best’; and ‘little’/‘less’/‘least’. (Available at www.

blacksheeppress.co.uk, product ref: CIP10, More than/Less than.)

This pack provides a wide range of illustrations that will enable SLTs and

teachers to explain and demonstrate the comparative and superlative forms,

and to develop games and activities using the pictures. Each comparative

and superlative adjective is illustrated twice. Adjectives illustrated in the pack

are: ‘big’, ‘long’, ‘high’, ‘fat’, ‘tall’, ‘thick’, ‘wet’ and ‘wide’.

Ideas for use

• Develop story sequences using the pictures so that the child is able to

hear correct uses of the forms, and can be encouraged to copy from an

adult model.

Example: Using pictures of the worm (‘fat’/‘fatter’/‘fattest’) from page

13. Cut the pictures into individual ‘cards’.

‘Here is a worm. He’s been eating lots of grass I think, because he’s

very fat, isn’t he? [If the black and white pictures are used, the child

can be encouraged to colour in the worm.] ‘What a fat pink worm!’

‘Now here he is again… But… oh no! Look! He’s been eating even

more grass! He’s fatter! See? He’s fat here… but now he’s even

fatter!’

‘This is the last picture of our worm. But look! I think he’s been



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eating even more grass because he is the fattest worm I have ever

seen!’

‘See? [Present all three pictures to the child in sequence.] He’s been

eating grass, so he is fat … but he ate more grass, so he got fatter …

and now he is the fattest worm I have ever seen!’

Now ask the child to retell the story using the pictures as prompts.

Teachers may wish the child to attempt to write a simple narrative

account.

• Play sorting games that will allow close modelling of the correct form.

Example: ‘wet’/‘wetter’/‘wettest’.

Cut the illustrations related to wet weather (page 20) into three

separate cards. Place them, face up, on the table. Describe them to

the child. ‘Oh no! It’s raining. The dog is very wet … [Point to the next

card.]

But it’s still raining, so this dog is wetter than him … and look …

[Point to the last card.]

it’s still raining and this dog is the wettest of all.’

Now turn the cards over, so they are face down on the table, and

mix them around. The child turns each card over in turn and sorts

the pictures in to the correct sequence.

‘Right, that dog is wet, isn’t he? [Child turns over the next card.]

This dog is wet, too. But who is wetter? Yes … this dog is wetter than

this one. Let’s look at the last picture. Is he wetter than this dog? Is

he the wettest?’

• Play picture matching games and lotto games that allow for close

modelling and correction.

Print/copy pictures on to card and cut into individual cards for

picture matching games.

Retain a complete sheet and cut the matching sheet into individual

pictures for lotto games.

Example: ‘What two pictures have you turned over? Are they the

same? Oh, they’re not, are they? Why not? Oh yes … that snake is

long … but this one is longer.’

Reference

Brown, R. (1973) A First Language: The early stages, London: George Allen &

Unwin.



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WIP5, Comparatives & Superlatives, second edition © 2016 Helen Rippon, Black Sheep Press Ltd. Black Sheep Press, 67, Middleton, Cowling, Keighley, W. Yorks, BD22 0DQ, England. Tel. +44 (0)1535 631346; email: [email protected] ; web: www.blacksheeppress.co.uk


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Comparatives and Superlatives - Black Sheep Press · PDF fileWIP5, Comparatives & Superlatives, second edition 2016 Helen Rippon, Black Sheep Press Ltd. 4 lck heep Press, , Mddleton,