Shadowing Practice: Don't Say 'More Good'! ❌ How to Use Comparatives & Superlatives Correctly - Learn English Speaking with Video
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76 sentences
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Oh no, how did that happen?
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Did any other customers come back?
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A few.
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Well, all of them actually.
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I think I hadn't mixed the soap quite right.
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So I guess Ashley won the competition then?
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Yes, I had to give the people their money back, but I still think I'm a better salesman than Ashley.
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Maybe.
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I want to talk about better and the ways of comparing things.
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Comparative adjectives.
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Let's watch some bits again.
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This is harder than I thought.
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That looks a bit easier than painting.
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But you need to be more careful.
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Soap!
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That's a better idea than candles.
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OK, so the rules for this aren't very difficult.
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Let's start with short, one -syllable adjectives.
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One syllable?
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Yeah, like big, small, old, young.
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With those one -syllable adjectives, we make the comparative by adding E and R.
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This is harder than I thought.
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So, hard, harder.
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Big, bigger.
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Old, older.
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For two syllable adjectives that end in Y, happy, easy, crazy, we drop the Y and add I, E, R.
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That looks a bit easier than painting.
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Easy.
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Easier.
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And for longer adjectives, two or more syllables,
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like comfortable, beautiful, interesting, we add more before the adjective, like this.
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Why don't we make it a bit more exciting?
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But you need to be more careful.
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Exciting.
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More exciting.
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Careful.
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More careful.
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OK, I've got that.
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These rules work for almost all adjectives, but there are two important exceptions.
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Things that don't follow the rules.
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Do you know what they are?
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Good.
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Good.
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Soap.
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That's a better idea than candles.
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The comparative of good is better.
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That's a better idea.
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And the other important one is bad.
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The comparative of bad is worse.
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Right.
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Bad, worse.
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And then after comparatives, I usually teach my students about superlatives.
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Comparatives talk about two things.
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So, Canada is bigger than Britain, but Russia is the biggest country in the world.
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The biggest is the superlative of big.
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Let's have a look at some examples.
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Typical Ash, you choose the biggest thing in the market for your tiny flap.
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It's a candle making kit, one of the most popular products we sell.
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Whoever sells the most will be the best salesman and the best artist.
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So, small, one syllable adjectives like big, cold, small, we add E -S -T.
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Big, bigger, the biggest.
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You choose the biggest thing in the market for your tiny flap.
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Two syllable adjectives that end in Y, the Y changes to an I,
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and we add E -S -T, easy, easier, the easiest.
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And longer adjectives, two or more syllables, we add the most, the most beautiful, for example.
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It's a candle -making kit, one of the most popular products we sell.
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The most popular thing we sell, popular, more popular, the most popular.
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And what about our exceptions?
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Good, better, the best, and bad, worse, the worst.
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That's right.
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All these rules might sound difficult, but they're not really.
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Most students learn them pretty easily.
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It's not the most difficult thing in the world.
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That's right.
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Very good.
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Okay, thanks Rob.
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This video has 76 sentences and 516 words to shadow. The speech runs for 3:48. The speaker talks at a steady 136 words per minute, a comfortable pace for shadowing. 83% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English; the rest is worth studying before you start.
Key vocabulary in this video
12 words from the video worth learning, with pronunciation and meaning:
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| comparative adjective | /kəmˈpæɹətɪv/ | Of or relating to comparison. |
| candle noun | /ˈkæn.dəl/ | A light source consisting of a wick embedded in a solid, flammable substance such as wax, tallow, or paraffin. |
| soap noun | /soʊp/ | A metallic salt derived from a fatty acid, commonly used in cleaning products. |
| exception noun | /əkˈsɛpʃən/ | The act of excepting or excluding; exclusion; restriction by taking out something which would otherwise be included, as in a class, statement, rule. |
| salesman noun | A man whose job it is to sell things, either in a shop / store or elsewhere. | |
| compare verb | /kəmˈpɛɚ/ | To assess the similarities and differences between two or more things [“to compare X with Y”]. Having made the comparison of X with Y, one might have found it… |
| whoever | /huˈɛvɚ/ | Who ever: an emphatic form of who. |
| adjective noun | /ˈæd͡ʒ.ɪk.tɪv/ | A word that modifies a noun or noun phrase or describes a noun’s referent. |
| syllable noun | /ˈsɪl.ə.bəl/ | A unit of human speech which often forms words corresponding to one opening of the mouth; a vowel and its surrounding consonants. |
| excite verb | /ɪkˈsaɪt/ | To stir the emotions of; to cause to feel excitement. |
| flap noun | /flæp/ | Anything broad and flexible that hangs loose, or that is attached by one side or end and is easily moved. |
| superlative noun | /suˈpɝlətɪv/ | The extreme (e.g. highest, lowest, deepest, farthest, etc) extent or degree of something. |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Meaning |
|---|---|
| come back verb | To return to a place. |
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 7 contractions and reduced forms, such as don't, aren't, hadn't. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- Long words — get the stress right: comparative /kəmˈpæɹətɪv/, superlative /suˈpɝlətɪv/
How to practise with this video
- Listen to the whole video once without speaking and note the words you do not know.
- Shadow it sentence by sentence at normal speed, repeating each one until your rhythm matches the speaker.
- Record yourself and compare with the original, paying attention to words like comparative, candle, soap.
Grammar in this video
The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:
| Structure | In the video |
|---|---|
| Superlatives the -est / the most … — the top or bottom of a group | the biggest · the most popular · the most will |
| Comparatives -er than / more … than — comparing two things | harder than · easier than · bigger than |
| Obligation: must / have to / need to saying that something is necessary | had to give · need to be |
What is the Shadowing Technique?
Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.