It’s tempting with comparatives to focus merely on the form. After all, the rules aren’t that difficult to explain. But be careful not to oversimplify the use. For example, we often assume that comparatives are used only to compare two things.
I am taller than my brother.
But we can use it to compare more than two things.
I am taller than my brother and my sister.
We can also use the comparative without stating the other thing if it’s understood.
I feel better (than I did before).
Maybe it is best to draw students’ attention to these uses of comparatives if they come up in texts or class work.
Don’t forget that in many languages there is no equivalent of the superlative. So something what seems completely normal to you as a proficient user of English may be in fact very alien to an English language learner. Be prepared for mistakes like He is the more intelligent. The film has the bigger budget in history.
Even though we say “use THE with superlatives”, remember that there are occasions when we don’t (see explanation above). So this rule of thumb does have its limitations.
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