bigger, faster (comparatives)
An elephant is bigger than a cat — grammar children argue with. Add -er, add than, and every playground debate becomes English practice.
From age 7Building sentences →
✏️ The pattern
- Saying it
- A is bigger than B.
- Saying no
- A is not faster than B.
- Asking
- Which is bigger?
- Short answer
- The elephant is.
🗣️ Sentences a child can say
Tap any sentence to hear it. Every one uses words from a topic pack you already have.
🩹 What you will actually hear
The three mistakes that come up in every class, and what is behind each one.
more biggerbigger
One comparison per adjective: short words take -er, long words take more. Doubling them is wearing two coats.
gooderbetter
Good and bad refuse the rule — better and worse are their stage names. Two exceptions, both famous, both worth learning as songs.
🎯 How to teach it
- 1
Line up real objects and let the class rank them aloud: 'The pencil is longer than the crayon!' Physical comparison makes than mean something.
- 2
Animal top trumps is the perfect engine: bigger, faster, heavier, taller — every card flip forces a comparative out loud.
- 3
Teach the spelling dance for short words: big→bigger doubles the g, happy→happier flips the y. Two moves, chanted, cover almost everything.
🗂️ Topic packs that pair with this
Same structure, words your class already knows — no new vocabulary needed.
💬 Questions teachers ask
Comparatives and superlatives together or apart?
Apart, by a few weeks. Bigger-than is a relationship between two things; the biggest is a podium for many. Children handle each easily and both at once badly.
Do they need 'more beautiful' at this age?
Only receptively. Teach the -er family actively and let more + adjective ride along in your own speech; production of long comparatives can wait for Flyers.