Comparative and superlative forms - I need my monster

In a previous post there was a video of a tale for children called 'I need my monster'.  You can click here to go to that post.

In that story there was a boy called Ethan who had a monster under his bed, called Gabe.

Ethan loved to have Gabe under his bed but one day Gabe left and then Ethan tried to find another monster as a substitute.

Now, all the monsters that came were quite different.  Some were bigger than others, some were scarier than others, some were less experienced than others, some were more menacing than others, some were not as good as Gabe, some were as scary as Gabe and one of them was the funniest of them all. But for Ethan Gabe was the best.

The coloured words show examples of comparative and superlative forms of adjectives in English.

The table below is about Comparative forms:

One syllable adj.	ADJ + ER	Gabe is taller than Ethan.
Two syllable adj. ending in letter  ‘y’	ADJ (without the letter ‘y’) + IER	Gabe is scarier than the other monsters.
More than one syllable adj.	MORE + ADJ	Gabe is more frightening than the first monster.

The table below is about Superlative forms:

One syllable adj.	ADJ + EST	Gabe is the tallest monster.
Two syllable adj. ending in letter  ‘y’	ADJ (without the letter ‘y’) + IEST	The fifth monster is the funniest.
More than one syllable adj.	MOST + ADJ	The girl monster is the most interesting monster (at the beginning).

• This link takes you to some exercises to practise this grammar point from the story.  

• You can also practise this grammar point with the activity below (this exercise is not connected with the story):

1. My pencil is ____ than Ethan's pencil.
bigger
biger
more big

2. The Hilton's live in ____ house in the village.
the most big
biggest
the biggest

3. We bought a car that was _____ our old car.
more comfortable
more comfortable than
more comfortabler than

4. Sullivan is the ______ student in our class.
the most intelligent
more intelligent
most intelligent

5. Carol ran _____ Sue and she won the race.
more fast than
faster than
more faster than

6. Tom's joke was ______ of the night.
the funniest
the funnyest
the most funny

7. My aunt has _____ hairstyle in my family.
the craziest
craziest
the crazyest

8. My mobile is ______ my wife's.
modern than
modernest than
more modern than

9. She's the _____ girl in the class.
the shiest
shiest
the most shy

10. Peter speaks English _______ than Allan.
more fluently
fluently than
more fluently than

Score =
Correct answers:

I absolutely recommend you to check these two pages from the British Council to get more information and to do some more practice:
Comparative and superlative adjectives 
English Grammar - Comparative and superlative adjectives 

If you need more practice with this topic, you can go to english-at-home.com to do some exercises.

Story: I need my monster

 

Bed time stories are wonderful.  Children love them.  Children also learn a lot about life with these stories.

But children's stories can be very effective for English learners too.  They can practise vocabulary, grammar structures, listening comprehension, speaking, ...

In the video below there's a story called 'I need my monster' by Amanda Noll with illustrations by Howard McWilliam, and retold by Rita Moreno.  

This video belong to the website Storyline Online, which has lots of lovely stories retold on video.  Watch the video, pay attention to the images and the story and, if necessary,  watch it as many times as you need until you understand the story.

After you watch the video, check your understanding with the quiz below.

1. Ethan's monster, Gabe, is not there because ...
he went on holiday.
he went fishing.
he went swimming.

2. Ethan decided to knock on the floorboards because ...
he needed a monster to go to sleep.
he wanted to see Gabe again.
he needed Gabe to sing for him.

3. The first monster ...
had a lot of experience in scaring children.
didn't like to scare children.
had only theoretical knowledge about scaring children.

4. Why did Ethan reject the second monster?
The monster had his claws nail polished.
The monster was a girl.
The monster didn't have claws.

5. What did Ethan think of Cynthia, the third monster?
Ethan thought Cynthia was very scary.
Ethan thought that girl monsters are for girls.
Ethan thought that her tail was not good enough.

Score =
Correct answers:

Listening: Numbers in prices

Listen to the recording and tick the prices you hear.

1.
45.99
49,99
49,45





2.
130
150
180




3.
15 p.
55 p.
50 p.



4.
7.25
7.55
17.25


5.
30.70
13.70
13,75





Score =
Correct answers:

Practice with business presentations

You can use different verb structures to tell the audience what you are going to say:

WOULD LIKE + Infinitive	Today, I'd like to tell you about our new plans.
	In this presentation I'd like to show you our latest product.
WILL + Infinitive	I'll start off by explaining the function.
	Then, I'll go on to give an outline of the project.
GOING TO + Infinitive	Today, I'm going to talk to you about new developments.
	I'm going to explain to you how to improve sales.
WILL BE + verb -ing	In my talk, I'll be looking at the costs of the project.
	I'll be talking about disadvantages of this method.

These are verbs that are typically used in the introduction, but that can be used later too.

Work with the activities below to reinforce what you've learned.

Activity 1




Activity 2




Activity 3




Activity 4




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More on giving business presentations

The following document provides a simple structure to organize a presentation. 
It also lists expressions that can be used in each stage of the talk.

Check your understanding with the following quiz:

Structure of a presentation

Presentations typically cover the following points:

1) Welcoming and thanking the audience Giving your name / position in the company
2) Introducing the topic
3) Structuring the talk
4) Mentioning the timing
5) Talking about supporting material
6) Talking about questions

Write the number that corresponds to each part of the presentation next to the following sentences from a presentation:

a) I’ve divided my presentation into three parts.
b) The aim of this presentation is to give an update on the ‘X-50’ project.
c) There will be time for questions after my presentation.
d) I’ll email my PowerPoint to you after my talk.
e) Today I’ll be looking at a new trend in the clothing industry.
f) Let me introduce myself. My name is Nicolas Pier.
g) I’ll be giving out handouts at the end of my talk.
h) First, I’ll be looking at last year’s sales. Then, I’ll move on to this year’s forecast and finally, I’ll outline the expectations for the following quarter.
i) I’m Susan Sayers and I’m in charge of IT at Global Band Inc.
j) Hello everybody and thank you for coming along here today.
k) My talk will last about 15 minutes.
l) Good morning ladies and gentlemen. It’s a pleasure to have you all here today.
m) I’m aware that you are all very busy, so my talk will not take more than 20 minutes.
n) Hi, everybody. I’m Sarah Jones from HR.
o) If you have questions, feel free to interrupt me at any point during my talk.