Comparative -er and more
Practice forming comparatives with -er for short and more for longer adjectives.
Session summary (SOAP)
Stays on this screen. Nothing is saved or sent.
Mark a card Correct, Correct with cue or Incorrect and the summary writes itself here.
How to run it
Sort before you produce. Put the short words in one pile and the long ones in another and let the pattern emerge, then state it — one syllable takes -er, three or more takes more, and two syllables depend on the ending. Happy and quiet are the interesting cases, since happy takes -er with a spelling change and quiet is genuinely variable. Ten minutes covers the set with the sorting step included.
Cueing ladder
Start at the top. Add support one step at a time.
- IndependentPresent the item and wait 5 seconds of quiet before helping.Log as correct
- HintStress the part of the sentence that changes, or point to the word ending.Log as cued
- Sentence starterSay the first half of the sentence and let the student finish it.Log as cued
- ModelSay the correct form in the whole sentence; the student repeats it.Log as cued
Adjust it
Give a sentence starter every time, and do fewer cards.
Ask for a new sentence of the student's own with the same form, with no card to lean on.
Matching IEP goal
Given sentence cards, Student will produce the target grammatical form in sentences in 8 of 10 opportunities across 3 consecutive sessions, given no more than an indirect cue.
Send it home through the parent portal →About this activity
Twelve adjectives turned into comparatives, split across the two rules: fast, tall, big, happy, small, loud and quiet take -er; careful, beautiful, colorful, interesting and difficult take more. English decides between them mostly by syllable count, and students who have only been taught -er produce more faster and beautifuler in roughly equal measure.
What to listen for
Listen for double marking. More faster is extremely common and shows the student knows a comparative is needed and has applied both strategies at once. Watch the spelling changes on the -er group: big becomes bigger with a doubled consonant, and happy becomes happier with a y-to-i change, both of which are separate rules riding along with this one.
Carrying it home
Comparisons are everywhere at home and easy to ask for. Which is bigger, which one is more interesting, who is taller. Using the correct form back in the answer is enough of a model.
What's in this activity
- fast → faster
- tall → taller
- big → bigger
- happy → happier
- small → smaller
- loud → louder
- quiet → quieter
- careful → more careful
- beautiful → more beautiful
- colorful → more colorful
- difficult → more difficult
- +1 more
Questions
- What grades is this for?
- Second through fifth, where comparative forms are expected in both speech and writing.
- Do I need to sign in?
- No, it plays free with no account.
- How do I explain which rule to use?
- Syllables are the usable shortcut: one syllable takes -er, three or more takes more. Two-syllable words vary, and the ones ending in -y usually take -er — happy becomes happier.
Use this board with your caseload
With a free account, every correct, cued and incorrect mark is saved to the student and scored against their IEP goal, with the data written up for you. Assign it as home practice through the parent portal.
Track progress freeFree for SLPs. No card, no trial clock.