Category: Structure

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Structure: ‘Comparative adjectives’

How to make comparative adjectives

Adjectives are put into four different categories before creating their comparative forms:

  1. one-syllable or short adjectives
  2. two or more syllable long adjectives
  3. adjectives that end with ‘y’
  4. irregular adjectives.

1. To make one-syllable or short adjectives into comparative adjectives we add ‘er + than’ to the end of the adjective.

  • short becomes shorter than
  • long becomes longer than

2. To make two or more syllable long adjectives into comparative adjective add ‘more’ before the adjective and ‘than’ after the adjective

  • comfortable becomes more comfortable than
  • impressive becomes more impressive than

3. To make adjectives that end with ‘y’ into comparative adjectives we remove ‘y’ at the end of the adjective and add ‘ier + than’ to the end of the adjective.

  • easy becomes easier than
  • heavy becomes heavier than

4. To make irregular adjectives into comparative adjectives you just have to learn the comparative form. Fortunately they aren’t many and they use ‘than’ after the comparative form.

  • good becomes better than
  • bad becomes worse than

Look at the diagram below for a summary of how we create the comparative forms from these different types of adjectives.

Diagram of how to form comparative adjectives.
Diagram of how to form comparative adjectives.

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Structure: ‘avoid vs prevent’

Fly High English - Structure

This time in our structure help we talk about the difference between avoid and prevent. These two verbs relate to similar, but not the same ideas. Check out the diagram below for the differences and read some more examples below.

Diagram explaining the difference between avoid and prevent.
The difference between avoid and prevent.

Examples
The pilots avoided the high speed taxiway because of the ice.
The cabin crew avoided each other after the flight because of the argument they had.
The strike prevented flights from operating normally.
The schedulers prevented the pilots from having five days off in a row.

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Structure: ‘Modals 8’

Modals and obligation

In the diagram below we can see that both should and must can be used to talk about present or future obligations. Again, when we want to talk about obligations in other tenses we can use other verbs which aren’t modals. The most common one is have to. Use have to in the past and with would, will or other modals (remember we never use two modals together). Review the examples below the diagram and tray to write some examples yourself. Then try to used have to for obligations in other tenses.

How to talk about obligations.
How to talk about obligations.

Present
He should wait before entering the plane. (not a strong obligation)
They must sit during the takeoff and landing. (strong obligation)

Future
You should get a taxi from the airport after you disembark.
She must file the report before 8pm tomorrow evening.

Past
They had to divert due to weather conditions. (strong obligation)
We had to renew our medical licence before returning to the line. (strong obligation)

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Structure: ‘Modals 7’

Modals and prohibition

From the diagram, we can see that to talk about prohibition there are five options, depending on the situation. ‘Mustn’t’ is the strongest structure, while ‘shouldn’t’ is the weakest. ‘Can’t’ and ‘may not’ relate to medium levels of prohibition. Look at the diagram and then look at the examples below for some more information.

How to talk about prohibition.
How to talk about prohibition.

Present
Passengers can’t enter the cockpit during flights.
You may not put your bag under the seat in a beside and emergency exit.
You shouldn’t drink your own alcohol on board.
You mustn’t smoke on board.

Future
We can’t have a day off next Monday.
They may not land after 2am, the airport will be closed.
He shouldn’t perform the landing for the next flight, it’s not his turn.
They mustn’t switch seats after the planes takes off.

Reported speech
He told us we couldn’t switch our flight.

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Structure: ‘Modals 6’

Modals and permission

Looking at our diagram we can see that to ask for permission in the present or future we have four options; can, could, may or might. Could is a little more polite than can, and may or might are very formal, so choose the correct model for your situation.

Asking for permission.
Asking for permission.

Present
Can I open this window shade?
Could I open this window shade?
May I open this window shade?
Might I open this window shade?

Future
Can I use the jumpseat on the next flight?
Could I use the jumpseat on the next flight?
May I use the jumpseat on the next flight?
Might I use the jumpseat on the next flight?

To refer to permission in the past use ‘allow sb to’ (which is not a modal verb).

eg The company allowed me to continue flying 48 hours after the incident.

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Structure: ‘Modals 5’

Time references for modal verbs

Adding to what we saw previously, we look at the time reference for our modal verbs in each of their uses. Looking at our diagram below, we can see that to talk about ability in the past we use ‘could’ and in the present we use ‘can’.

Ability in the future?

Then how do we talk about ability in the future? Well, in the future we use ‘be able to’.

eg. By next year I’ll be able to fly three single engine aircraft.

‘Be able to’ isn’t a modal verb so it isn’t in our list, but we can use it with a similar meaning to a modal verb with time references unavailable to our modal verbs (i.e. not just future, but also with present perfect, after ‘would’ etc…).

Time reference for modal verbs.
Time reference for modal verbs.

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