Hello teacher, I'm Charmaine Alaina. I had some difficulties about the difference between "older" and "elder" Would you please to help me? Thank you very much.
I guess, simply put, older is the comparative form of old (old, older, oldest). Elder isn't a comparative, since there isn't a word such as eld (as far as I know).
Elder means older but it is used in comp[a]rative form. Although there is no word call[e]d ELD, we use ELDER for comparison especially in written form.
In comparisons between two persons, elder means “older” but not necessarily “old”:
My elder sister is sixteen; my younger, twelve.
Eldest is used when three or more persons are compared:
He is the eldest of four brothers.
In other contexts elder does denote relatively advanced age but with the added component of respect for a person's achievement, as in an elder statesman. If age alone is to be expressed, one should use older or elderly rather than elder:
A survey of older Americans; an elderly waiter.
Unlike elder and its related forms, the adjectives old, older, and oldest are applied to things as well as to persons.