Comparing things

We all know about simple comparisons using comparative adjectives:

My house is bigger than John's,
Peter is more intelligent than Paul,
Elephants aren't as big as whales,
I'm as tall as my mother.
                                                

We can get more ambitious and modify the differences using adverbs: slightly, a bit, much, a great deal, far, not quite, just,  so we get:

My house is much bigger than John's,
Peter is slightly more intelligent than Paul,
Elephants aren't nearly as big as whales,
I'm almost as tall as my mother.


Another structure we can put in here is the + comparative +subject+verb, the + comparative +subject+verb

The more I study, the less I understand
The higher you climb, the harder you fall

Here's a link for an online dictionary which shows you some words to use:

http://www.macmillandictionary.com/thesaurus-category/british/Ways-of-comparing-things

Of course, the most obvious use of this is in the key word transformations in Use of English, but also to make the general language you use more complex and sophisticated.