Repeated and double comparatives

Repeated and double comparatives

by Andrea Angmen

​Look at the sentences

​The birth rate is getting lower and lower

​By the end of the twentieth century, couples are waiting longer and longer to marry.

It’s becoming more and more difficult to predict life expectancy.

It’s less and less possible to raise birthrates in modern societies.

That’s happening more and more (often) these days.

More and more people are marrying later.

Fewer and fewer (people) are having children before they are thirty.

Multiple Choice

Use repeated comparatives to describe

• continuing increases and decreases

• things that stay the same

Multiple Select

Which repeated comparatives in the example sentences describe things that are increasing?

• more and more

• longer and longer

• lower and lower

• fewer and fewer

Multiple Select

Which repeated comparatives in the example sentences describe things that are decreasing?

• more and more

• longer and longer

• lower and lower

• fewer and fewer

​Look at the sentences

​The more education women get, the later they marry

​

​The less children studied, the more slowly they learned.

​

The better the quality of health care (is), the higher the life expectancy (is).

Multiple Choice

Use double comparatives to describe...

• an increasing situation

• a decreasing situation

• a cause-and-effect process

Multiple Choice

Choose the sentence that means the same as: The more education women get, the later they marry.

• Women are getting more education, so they’re marrying later.

• Women are getting less education, so they’re marrying later.

• Women are getting education, so they’re marrying later.

• Women are getting more education, so they’re marrying sooner]

Multiple Choice

Choose the sentence that means the same as: Children studied less, so they learned more slowly

• The more children studied, the more slowly they learned.

• The less children studied, the more slowly they learned.

• The more children studied, the less slowly they learned.

Multiple Choice

The older one gets, the harder it can be to find a husband or wife.

• Because it’s harder to find a husband or wife, you can get older.

• If you get older, it can be harder to find a husband or wife.

BE CAREFUL! Don’t use the present or past continuous in either clause of a double comparative statement. Use the simple present or the simple past tense instead.​

Multiple Choice

Choose the correct statement.

• The longer couples wait to have children, the fewer children they have.

• The longer couples are waiting to have children, the fewer children they’re having.