CHANGING PLACES

Read the text bellow. It’s a real example from an artist comparison two cities: London and San Francisco.

Changing places

Joanna is an artist from San Francisco who moved to London in 1988. We asked her to compare life in San Francisco and London. Here’s what she told us.

San Francisco is a lovely city in a beautiful bay. It’s got lots of great buildings and places. It’s smaller and much more modern than London, but it’s less interesting. London has a lot more theatres and museums. The Americans are usually more interested in money than culture! The architecture in London is incredible and very stimulating, and the parks and markets are wonderful. London isn’t as dangerous as San Francisco, and it’s less violent. I feel much safer living here – nobody carries a gun, not even the police!

People have a higher standard of living in the States because generally, it’s much less expensive than England. For example, petrol is less than half the price and things like food, clothes, and cameras are much cheaper.

The food

Food in the States is generally much better. It’s fresher, cheaper, and there’s much more choice. Restaurants aren’t as expensive as in London and the service is much better. In some restaurants they put a clock on the table when you arrive, and if they haven’t served your meal in five minutes, they’ll give you the food free! I’m usually disappointed when I eat out in London, although the Indian restaurants are excellent.

VOCABULARY:

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FOCUS ON GRAMMAR

In this section appears the basics about comparison of adjectives and adverbs. We used examples from the text «Changing places».

COMPARATIVE

• We use the comparative  to compare and contrast two thing.
• Comparative are very commonly followed by than and a pronoun or noun group. You can use sentences with “than”, or you can use a conjunction like “but”.

It’s smaller and much more modern than London, but it’s less interesting.

The Americans are usually more interested in money than culture.

• Comparative are often qualified by using words and phrases such as much, a lot, far, a bit/ little, slightly etc.

People have a higher standard of living in the States because generally, it’s much less expensive than England.

Restaurants aren’t as expensive as in London and the service is much better.

SUPERLATIVE

• We use the superlative form to compare and contrast more more than two things.
• Like comparatives superlatives can be placed before nouns in the attributive position, or occur after bbe and other link verbs.  Superlative sentences usually use “the”, because there is only one superlative.
• Superlatives are often used on their own if it is clar what or who is being compared.. If you want to be specific about what you are comparing, you can do this with a noun, o a phrase beginning with in or of.

Masami is the tallest in the class.

Yukio is tall, and Jiro is taller, but Masami is the tallest.

Annabel was the youngest.

HOW TO CONSTRUCT THE COMPARATIVE AND THE SUPERLATIVE FORM:

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IMPORTANT EXCEPTIONS : IRREGULAR FORMS

• There are some important exceptions to these rules. Here are some of the most important exceptions:

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• Some three syllable adjectives  wich have been formed by adding the prefix – un to another adjective, especially those formed from and adjective ending in –y. these adjectives can form comparatives and superlatives by using more/most or addin –er/-est. E.g.: unhappy, unhappier, the unhappiest / the most unhappy.