Comparative Adjectives

Wow, it's been a really long time since I've written a blog post! I've been very busy with my personal life the last few months, so thank you for your patience :)

This week I've been particularly bothered by comparative adjectives. It's a common mistake, so let's work on it today!

I'm growing a vegetable garden this year, so I'll use some examples from my garden. You can see some of the things I've grown below.

Here is my baby Japanese eggplant! Isn't it cute? Let's compare it to the full-grown vegetable.

SHORT WORD COMPARATIVE: + -ER
This eggplant is SMALLER than the other one.
The other eggplant is BIGGER than this one.

For short word adjectives (usually 1 or 2 syllables), add -er. Be careful to obey spelling rules about doubling letters or changing y to i (ex. easy->easier).

Wow, look how it's grown! Time to make some spaghetti!

LONG WORD COMPARATIVE: MORE + ADJ
This eggplant is MORE BEAUTIFUL than the other one.
I think it will be MORE DELICIOUS in my spaghetti.

For long word comparatives (usually 3 or more syllables), add "more" in front of the adjective.

Irregular comparative adjective forms: bad->worse    good->better

*****CAUTION*****
We don't ever say "more -er"!!!! You have to choose between "more" and "-er."
EX. This eggplant is more bigger than that one. =INCORRECT

Let's try!

Exercise:
1) My sister is (pretty) than yours.
2) I think New York is (cold) than Los Angeles.
3) The book is much (good) than the movie.
4) Matthew is feeling even (bad) than he was yesterday.
5) The school system in our country is pushing the children to work (hard) than before.
6) My grandmother's apple pie is much (delicious) than the restaurant's.
7) The vegetables at the supermarket are (cheap) than at this place.
8) The birds are much (noisy) in the morning than in the afternoon.
9) The plot of this story is (magnificent) than I could have imagined.
10) Comparative adjectives are (easy) than I expected!

ANSWERS: 1-prettier 2-colder 3-better 4-worse 5-harder 6-more delicious 7-cheaper 8-noisier 9-more magnificent 10-easier

CHALLENGE: Post a reply to this message and make two sentences of your own using comparatives.

Reader Questions: English Podcasts??

With the proliferation of smart phones, MP3 players, and PMPs, many students are learning to use podcasts for extra English practice.  One of my students asked me recently about some good ones, and these are my favorites for news.  There are many others that are strictly for English education.  Do you have any to recommend?  Search for them in your favorite podcatcher--I use iTunes.

NEWS

1. 6 Minute English
INTERMEDIATE: News for English learners, focusing on one topic per lesson. Their website offers downloadable PDFs with the script and vocabulary to study.  Six minutes long, as advertised!  I used this in my classroom frequently.

2. New York Times Front Page
ADVANCED: News for native speakers, covering quick summaries of the top stories around the world.  Produced for a US audience, some of the stories focus on US news.  Usually 6 to 7 minutes long.

3. KBS World Radio News
ADVANCED: News at a native level, covering the top stories in Korea and Asia.  Usually around 7 minutes long.

4. BBC NewsPod
ADVANCED: For practice understanding a British English accent, consider the top stories in world news.  Most podcasts are around 30 minutes in length for an extended listening practice.  They offer a quick summary of the upcoming stories at the beginning of the podcast before going into the details of each story.

-Lisa

Reader Question: Greetings

It's a beautiful Wednesday and I'm sick as a dog! I've had a nasty cold all week (T_T).  What do you like to do when you're sick? I love to curl up under a blanket with a good book or watch movies. But today, I'm catching up with my blog. I've been working on my next post for Top Ten Mistakes, but I thought I'd take some time to answer a question from a reader:

She asks:
Is it correct English to say "Good to see you again". Or should I say just "Good to see you"? Which is correct?
And should I say back "You too"? or "Me too"?

Thanks for the question! Many people practice greetings for meeting someone for the first time, but they don't know what to say when they see that same person again. To answer your first question, both "Good to see you again" and "Good to see you" are great greetings. These are appropriate if you haven't seen someone for awhile or if that person is someone you recently met. The correct reply would be "You too" because it's a short answer for "It's good to see you too."  Another good choice would be "Same here." It means you feel the same way as the other person. Here's a sample dialogue. Sally and Rachel know each other but haven't seen each other for a little while.

Sally: Hey Rachel, it's nice to see you again!
Rachel: Same here!  How have you been?
Sally: Uh, I've been all right, but I'm not feeling too hot this week.
Rachel: Sorry to hear that. We missed you on Tuesday. Have you caught that cold that's going around?
Sally: Yep. My husband's been sick too.
Rachel: Oh no...I hope you feel better soon. Are you taking anything for it?
Sally: Not really. I hate medicine, but I'm trying to get a lot of sleep and I'm taking a ton of vitamins. Thanks for asking.
Rachel: Well, take care and I hope to see you at the meeting on Sunday.
Sally: You too!

If you regularly see the person you are greeting, you can use something different, such as "How's it going?" "How was your day?" or just "How are you?"

I hope this helps! Don't forget to leave your questions under the "Ask Lisa a Question" page on the right side of my blog.  I made it just for you guys!

Lisa

January EFL Paradise Update

Hi everyone! It's 2011 and I hope you've got a cute calendar picked out! Things are slowly taking shape around here at the blog. I'm still learning, so thanks for bearing with me.

What's new in January so far:

New Pages
I've added a few new pages:

Lisa's Book Club: Many of my students are trying to read novels in English.  Yay! Here are my recommendations for English learners by age and skill level.  These are books I have studied with students, so I know they are a hit. This page is in progress and will eventually contain brief summaries and links.

Ask Lisa a Question: I'm starting to get English questions from readers (yay, thank you!!). When you want to ask me an English question, click on this page and leave a comment.  I'll address your question in an upcoming post so other readers can learn too.  If you are a Carrot student, we will also talk about your question during your lesson.

Thanks again for your support and participation!

-Lisa

Top Ten Mistakes: 1.Participial adjectives

Good morning! It's Friday and very early, but I'm sure it will be much later by the time I get around to posting this. Time to start the day with a grammar lesson! Today I'll be talking about a common mistake, participial adjectives. There are two similar grammar points that I'm combining here, stative passives and participial adjectives. What am I talking about?  How about an example?

I recently had a great trip to Hawaii. The volcano was very INTERESTING.  We spent a ton of time at the park, and I was an EXHAUSTED tourist by the end of the day.


1. -ing (present participle)
Participial adjectives that end in -ing are used when the subject of the sentence CAUSES the feeling. In the example above, the volcano CAUSES me to want to know more about it. INTERESTING describes the volcano. It has an active meaning.

2. -ed (or other past participle forms, if an irregular verb)
Participial adjectives that end in -ed or another past participle form are used when the subject of the sentence RECEIVED the action or was acted on by something. It has a passive meaning. Something made the subject feel that way. I was exhausted by the day's activities. So I am an exhausted tourist (not an exhausting tourist--that would mean I made my travel mates feel tired!).

When the adjective describes a state/situation, it is called a "stative passive." You can often see them followed by prepositions. Ex. I'm EXCITED ABOUT going to the movies this weekend. I'm ADDICTED TO animated movies.

Here are some common words that we often use as participial adjectives:
boring/bored, interesting/interested, exciting/excited, confusing/confused, frustrating/frustrated, amazed/amazing (For a complete list, I suggest checking out the book Understanding and Using English Grammar by Betty Schrampfer Azar , which is my favorite grammar book.)

I often hear my students say the following: I'm really confusing about that.
Unfortunately, this is incorrect. What would be the correct way to say it?
That's really confusing. / I'm really confused about that.
"That" causes the feeling, and "I" feel the feeling.

What do these sentences mean?: I'm boring. I'm bored.
"I'm boring" means that I make other people feel uninterested. People don't want to be around me because I'm not any fun. It's sad! "I'm bored" means that I am not having fun. There is nothing to do. Too bad!

Let's try some exercises. Choose the correct word to fill in the blank and think about your answer. The answers are below the exercises.

1) I don't like going to amusement parks. I think roller coasters are so (boring/bored). I'd rather go shopping or to the movies.
2) Kelly is (interesting/interested) in learning Korean, but she doesn't know how to start. Do you have any recommendations?
3) Scientists just discovered life on Mars. That's so (exciting/excited)!
4) Grammar is (confusing/confused) and I hate it! I wish we didn't have to study English.
5) The student felt (frustrating/frustrated) when he saw his score on the final exam. He thought he'd done a good job.
6) I saw on the news that a dog saved his owner from a fire. How (amazing/amazed)!

ANSWERS: 1-boring 2-interested 3-exciting 4-confusing 5-frustrated 6-amazing

Here's a website with a quiz for more practice: More Practice Here.

ASSIGNMENT: Post a comment to this message. Write one (or a few) sentences trying to use this grammar point. I'll check them for you :)

Top Ten Mistakes

I've been teaching ESL/EFL for 8 years now and I've had students from all over the world. All students have their own particular challenges based on their native language. I'm going to try to tackle some of the most common mistakes my Korean students make in a series of upcoming posts. Here are my Top Ten, plus a bonus 11th:

1.      –ing vs. –ed adjectives (I’m boring vs. I’m bored)

2.      Prepositions

3.      Subject-verb agreement errors

4.      Pronunciation

5.      The present perfect tense (has/have + past participle)

6.      Making negative past forms (I didn’t saw that movie.)

7.      Articles (a/an/the)

8.      Choosing the wrong form of the word

9.      Almost/most and other expressions of quantity

10.   Not understanding sentences with OR (Ex. Are you taking the day off or are you going to work? Yes.)

11.   Conditional tense confusion

I'm looking forward to helping you improve your skills!

Just getting started...

Hi everyone! This is my first real blog and I’m excited to get started. The main purpose of this blog is to help my students and former students who are studying English as a second or foreign language. I’ll try to post something each week, like tips, student questions, cultural tidbits, or learning tools I find interesting. Let’s see how it goes! You can subscribe to this blog with your favorite RSS reader to get notifications when I've posted something new. I’ll also be posting notices about new blog posts on Facebook (for my former, non-Carrot students) and My Classroom Board (for my current, Carrot students). Let’s learn together!