Business English- Comparing products using comparative and superlative adjectives

Comparing products comparative and superlative adjectives practice

Work in groups of three or four. Choose a kind of product such as one of the ones below and compare it to other products on the market to make it sound good, using your imagination as much as you like. You can only use one superlative adjective and one comparative adjective to do so, e.g. “It’s the… est product of this kind on the market” and “It’s more… than most equivalent products”, and you can’t use the same adjectives as before. Someone else in your group will use two different adjectives in the same way to describe a competing product. Perhaps after asking for more information about the products, the other person or people in your group should choose which one of those two products of the same type they would be likely to buy (as a consumer or B2B buyer). Then switch roles and products and do the same again.

What are the comparative and superlative forms of all the adjectives below (including the words in brackets)?

What are the rules on making comparative and superlative forms of adjectives?

Have you ever seen any advertisements where the producers compared their products to other companies’ products? What did those ads say?

What do you think about that kind of advertising?

Think about a product that you bought recently and describe why you decided on that exact one rather than other similar products.

 

Suggested products to describe

• air conditioning
• app (= application, e.g. smartphone application)
• armchair
• automatic pencil (= mechanical pencil)
• ballpoint (pen) (= biro)
• bin (= trash can)
• business shirt (= dress shirt)
• correcting fluid (=Tippex/ Whiteout)
• desk lamp
• eraser (= rubber)
• glue
• hair clippers
• HDTV
• hole punch
• humidifier
• intercom
• jumper (= sweater)
• laptop (computer)
• lift (= elevator)
• light bulb
• plastic container
• pot noodles
• remote control
• ring binder
• rubber band
• safe
• (winter) scarf
• Sellotape/ Scotch tape
• socket (= electrical outlet)
• stapler
• sticky label
• sunglasses
• tracksuit
• trainers (= sports shoes)
• travel alarm clock
• vending machine
• video conferencing system
• washing powder
• washing up liquid

Ask about anything above you don’t know, discussing what you might explain about that kind of product as a class each time.

Suggested adjectives

• big (= large) – small/ tiny/ compact
• bright
• cheap/ economical
• clean
• colourful
• comfortable
• compact
• customisable
• easy to… - hard to…
• effective way to…
• efficient use of…
• ergonomic
• exciting
• exclusive
• fast (= quick/ rapid)
• flexible
• futuristic/ high-tech
• good value for money
• green (= ecologically friendly)
• healthy
• heavy – light
• high in… - low in…
• interesting
• long – short
• loud – quiet
• luxurious
• narrow – wide
• new/ up to date – traditional
• nice to…
• popular
• portable
• powerful
• practical
• pure
• radical
• reliable
• safe
• smooth
• sticky
• strong
• stylish
• sweet
• tasty
• thick – thin
• unusual