Study Resource: Qualifiers for comparative adjectives

By: revel arroway

Intensifying adverbs

Use these qualifiers before a comparative adjective if the difference is larger than expected.

Example

My house is much larger than your house.
Compared to my house, your house is very small.
My house is much more interesting than your house.
Compared to my house, your house is very boring.
My house is much less interesting than your house.
Compared to your house, my house is very boring.


Qualifiers for comparative adjectives: BIGGER difference
much
far
heaps	colloquial
loads	colloquial
vastly	for a very large difference
a good deal
a great deal	a larger difference than a good deal
infinitely	use when the difference is so big it is almost silly to compare them
rather	mostly in British English
way	colloquial (very common)
lots	colloquial

There are a few unusual intensifying adverbs that you can also use with comparative adjectives:

even→ This does not show that the difference is large, but it does say that both things have a lot of the quality. This is a very common intensifier for comparative adjectives. For example:
- Maggie is even taller than Susan.
  We know that Susan is very tall, so it is surprising/impressive that Maggie is taller than Susan.
still → Like even, this shows that both things have a lot of the quality. But usually we use still after we have already made another comparison. For example:
- Cathy is tall, Susan is taller, and Maggie is still taller!
  Because Susan is taller than Cathy, it is surprising that Maggie is taller than Susan.
Stillis also more literary/formal than ever.
But be careful! The word still is not always an intensifying adjective. Usually, it just means that there has been no change over time:
- Maggie is still taller than Susan.
  Last year, Maggie was taller than Susan. That has not changed.

Use these qualifiers before a comparative adjective if the difference is smaller than expected.

Example

My house is a bit larger than your house.
Our houses are close in size, but mine is bigger.
My house is a bit more interesting than your house.
Our houses are close in price, but mine is more expensive.
My house is a bit less interesting than your house.
Our houses are close in price, but mine is less expensive.


Qualifiers for comparative adjectives: SMALLER difference
a bit	you can also say a little bit or a tiny bit
a little	this is very common
a touch
slightly	this is the best choice for formal contexts, but it is okay in informal speech too