Three frames for comparing
A comparative says one thing has more or less of a quality than another. The quality is an adjective (a describing word), and it still agrees with the noun: Lucía es más alta que su hermano, with alta for a woman.
Mejor, peor, mayor, menor
Four common adjectives replace más + adjective with a single word. They have one form for masculine and feminine and add -es in the plural: mis hermanos mayores. Mayor and menor are for age; for physical size Spanish says más grande, más pequeño.
| Adjective | Comparative | Example |
|---|---|---|
| buenogood | mejormeh-HOR · better | Este café es mejor.This coffee is better. |
| malobad | peorpeh-OR · worse | Hoy el tráfico es peor.The traffic is worse today. |
| viejo (age)old | mayormah-YOR · older | Mi hermana es mayor que yo.My sister is older than me. |
| jovenyoung | menormeh-NOR · younger | Soy el hermano menor.I’m the youngest brother. |
Tap a row to hear the example. Mejor and peor also work as adverbs: cantas mejor que yo, “you sing better than me”.
The most, the least: el más … de
A superlative picks out one thing from a group. Spanish uses the comparative with el, la, los or las in front, and de (not “in”) for the group.
-ísimo: extremely, without comparing
To say something is extremely so, without comparing it to anything, drop the final vowel and add -ísimo: caro → carísimo, “really expensive”. It agrees like any adjective (-ísima, -ísimos). Some spellings change to keep the same sound.
Comparing amounts and actions
With a noun (a thing), “as much / as many” is tanto, which agrees: tanta agua, tantos libros. With a verb (an action), it is just tanto como. Before a number, “more than” is más de, not más que.