Double Comparatives

Hi English learners! Have you ever heard of double comparatives? You probably know what comparative is. It is the first degree of comparison. We use it to compare two people or things. We form it by adding -er to the short adjectives and putting more before the long ones. 

For example:

• Peter is taller than Sarah.
• This restaurant serves more delicious food than that one.

I’m sure you also know what double comparatives are and you see or hear this kind of expression all the time but you just don’t recognize them by the name. It’s very simple and easy to learn the structure so I’ll teach you so you can enjoy using them as if you were a native speaker. 

So-called double comparatives are structures that employ two parallel clauses to express cause and effect. 

For example:

The more you practice English the better you speak.

The less you eat the leaner you get.

Double comparatives with “the more…” and “the less…”

Let’s find out how we build a double comparative sentence using more and less. We normally use the following construction:

The more / less + (noun / noun phrase) subject + verb – the more / less + (noun) subject + verb 

For example:

• The more people join the protest, the more police will be involved.
• The less money you spend the more you will have.
• The more you exercise the fewer health worries you have.
• The more time you spend working, the more stressed you get.
• The less you talk about your problems the less you will think about them.
• The more you laugh, the more relaxed you feel.

Double comparative with adjectives and adverbs

We can use comparative adjectives or adverbs in the same way. The structure is as follows:

The comparative + subject + verb – the comparative + subject + verb

For example:

• The harder you study English, the more confidently you speak.
• The older children are, the taller they become.
• The more active you are, the more flexible and leaner you become.
• The darker it gets, the more scared they are.
• The stronger the body, the better it resists.
• The richer they were, the more privileges they enjoyed.
• The faster you drive, the more likely you’ll get caught by the police.
• The weaker the bones, the easier they break.
• The prettier the girl looks, the more attention she gets.
• The longer it goes on, the worse it will be.

Exercise:

Use the prompts to make double comparative sentences:

1. Fast / you / drive / dangerous
2. Long / you / wait / boring
3. Honest / people / friends / have
4. Loud / music / angry / he / become
5. Strong / beliefs / strong / dogmas
6. I / read / interesting / the book
7. Cheap / tickets / people / buy / them
8. Old / you / experience / you / have
9. Quiet / he / talk / calm / dog / become
10. Ballerina / dance / impressed / audience
11. High / you / climb / cold / it / get
12. Languages / you / speak / people / respect / you

Possible answers:

1. The faster you drive, the more dangerous it is.
2. The longer you wait, the more boring it is.
3. The more honest people are, the more friends they will have.
4. The louder the music was, the angrier he became.
5. The stronger the beliefs, the stronger the dogmas.
6. The more I read, the more interesting the book was.
7. The cheaper the tickets, the more people will buy them.
8. The older you are, the more experience you have.
9. The quieter he talked, the calmer the dog became.
10. The more the ballerina danced, the more impressed the audience was.
11. The higher you climb, the colder it gets.
12. The more languages you speak, the more people will respect you.

Download the PDF with the lesson and exercise

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