REPEATED COMPARATIVES AND DOUBLE COMPARATIVES

WHAT ARE REPEATED COMPARATIVES?

Repeated comparatives 

All of them are used to describe actions and things that are increasing or decreasing. 

1.1 INCREASING

To indicate that something is increasing we can apply two structures: er and er / more and more.

a) …….er and …….er

To form this structure we have to add “er” to the adjective to form a comparative adjective. It is used with adjectives and short adverbs; such as, closer and closer, longer and longer.

Examples:

She is getting closer and closer of her mother.

By the end of the twentieth century, couples were waiting longer and longer to marry.

b) more and more

We can use this structure with long adjectives or adverbs ; for example, more and more difficult, more and more slowly.

Examples:

It’s becoming more and more difficult.

He is going more and more slowly.

1.2 DECREASING

In order to indicate that something is decreasing we can use the following structures: fewer and fewer, less and less.

a) Fewer and fewer

It is used with countable nouns.

Example:

Fewer and fewer children are leaving school.

b) Less and less

It is used with uncountable nouns and adjectives.

Example:

He needs less and less money everyday.

Let’s take a look at the way English repeats comparative adjectives to describe a continuous change.

Change can happen to different degrees:

• just once, moderately – The temperature fell yesterday.
• dramatically – Sales of iPhones rocketed last year.
• a lot / a little – My English improved quite a lot during the course.

In the three examples above we have used verbs (fell, rocketed, improved) to show the change. However, when we want to express continuous (and often big) change, we can use two comparatives adjectives separated by and.

Take a look at these examples:

• My uncle grew fatter and fatter over the years.
• As Microsoft grew, Bill Gates got richer and richer.
• The balloon got bigger and bigger and then burst.

In each example above we used a comparative adjective (fatter, richer, bigger), followed by and, and then repeated the comparative.

‘More and more’ for longer comparatives

We don’t repeat comparative adjectives that are used with more; we simple say more and more:

• Things are getting more and more expensive.
• This books gets more and more interesting with every chapter.
• He spoke for over an hour and his explanation got more and more complicated.

                WHAT ARE DOUBLE COMPARATIVES?

                             

2. Double comparatives

Double comparatives describe a cause and effect process. Also, they are written as a sentence with a comma separating the cause and the effect. The structure to use them is the following:

     [the + comparative form] + (subject) + (verb), [the + comparative form] + (subject) + (verb)] 

Examples:

The more education women get, the later they marry.

The less children studied, the more slowly they learned.

FILL IN THE BLANKS WITH THE CORRECT FORM OF THE WORDS BELOW:

better loud hot probable small better more rich big

less happy merry late safe fast cheap more hard

1)      The  you study for these exams, the  you will do.

2)      She doesn't really like vodka, so the  a bottle you find, the  it will be for us.

3)      My neighbour is driving me mad! It seems that the  it is at night, the  he plays his music!

4)      He spent a year in India and loves spicy food. The  the food is, the  he likes it.

5)      Of course you can come to the party. The  the  .

6)      She will be really angry about that vase being broken! The  she knows about it, the  .

7)      He has 6 large dogs to protect his house. The  the dog, the  he feels.

8)      Earning money has always been the thing that pleases him most. The  he becomes, the  he is.

9)      You must drive slower in built up areas. The  you drive in the city, the  it is that you will have an accident.