This week marks a very special holiday in the United States: Halloween! As our students prepare their costumes, we have prepared a list of common vocabulary words and expressions to help you through the holiday, plus a mini-grammar lesson on Comparatives and Superlatives to help you use correct grammar when talking about the funniest, most original, and cutest costumes of the year.
Useful Halloween vocabulary words:
pumpkin
trick-or-treat
jack-o-latern
ghost
ghoul
vampire
werewolf
haunted house
witch
warlock
zombie
Useful Halloween Phrases:
Dress up (phrasal verb): to put on a costume (or, to put on really nice, fancy clothes)
“What are you dressing up as for Halloween?”
“I am dressing up as a pumpkin.”
Another way to talk about your costume is to use the phrase “go as.”
“I am going as Superman for Halloween this year.”
Carve a pumpkin (verb): to cut a face or shape into a pumpkin.
“I carved a scary face into my pumpkin.”
Using Comparatives and Superlatives to Describe Costumes
We often compare costumes: which is scariest? Which is funniest? Which is cutest? To do this correctly, we use Comparatives and Superlatives.
“His costume is scarier than mine.” (Comparative: you are comparing between two things.)
“Ben’s costume is the scariest.” (Superlative: you are comparing between more than two things.)
Remember, with comparatives using most one and two syllable words, you add “-er” to the end of most words.
scary –> scarier
cute –> cuter
funny –> funnier
With superlatives, when you compare more than two things, you add “-est” to the end of the words.
scary –> scarier –> scariest
cute –> cuter –> cutest
funny –> funnier –> funniest
What about with three or more syllable words, like the following?
original
creative
frightening
disturbing
current
To compare two things using these words, you must add “more (adjective) than”
His costume is more original than mine.
Her costume was more creative than Sarah’s.
His costume was more frightening than Jim’s.
Jim’s costume was more disturbing than Todd’s.
Her costume was more current than anyone else’s.
To use these words to compare more than two things, use the word “the most” with the adjective.
His costume is the most original.
Her costume was the most creative.
His costume was the most frightening.
Jim’s costume was the most disturbing.
Her costume was the most current.
Using Comparatives and Superlatives for Halloween
In your opinion, who won the awards for:
- Most original
- Scariest
- Funniest
- Most disturbing
- Most complicated
- Most daring
- Cutest
- Most colorful
- Most detailed
Send us a picture of your choices at [email protected] and we will post them next week! Happy Halloween to all of our students!