Note the structure and word order of these examples. In other words, we need to compare one thing to a group.Įnglish: My brother is the tallest student in the school.Įspañol: Mi hermano es el estudiante más alto de la escuela.Įnglish: She is the smartest analyst in the industry.Įspañol: Ella es la analista más inteligente de la industria.Įnglish: What is the most important task we need to finish this week?Įspañol: ❼uál es la tarea más importante que tenemos que terminar esta semana? Now we are saying that someone or something is “the most … of ….”.

When making superlative statements of superiority we need the structure from above ( …el / la / los / las (+nombre) + más + adjetivo (+ de)…). We’ll cover those in the section on irregular comparatives below.įor now, simply note that the majority of comparatives in Spanish behave like the comparatives in English such as ‘popular’, e.g. In Spanish, there are only a handful of irregular comparatives that match that behaviour of words such ‘faster’, ‘taller’, ‘stronger’. But, again, with popularity, we need to say “most popular” (and not ‘popularest’).

Moreover, we also have superlatives in English such as ‘fastest’, ‘tallest’ and ‘strongest’. For example, when comparing popularity, we need to say “more popular” (and not ‘popularer’). In English, we can make comparisons with words like ‘faster’, ‘taller’, ‘stronger’.īut, there are some situations where we don’t have an adjective that ends in ‘er’. See if you can spot the important difference between these two examples:Įnglish: Usain Bolt is faster than Asafa Powell.Įspañol: Usain Bolt es más rápido que Asafa Powell.Įnglish: Shakira is more popular than Ricky Martin.Įspañol: Shakira es más popular que Ricky Martin. How to make comparisons in Spanish – Comparatives of superiorityīefore we look at all of the different structures, let’s start by paying close attention to the first few examples using comparatives of superiority. In the next few sections, we’ll look at how to use each of these in a Spanish sentence.Īs an aside, in contrast to comparisons of superiority or inferiority, if you want to make a comparison of equality, you’ll instead need to use a sentence with tan vs tanto.

…el / la / los / las (+nombre) + menos + adjetivo (+ de)… …el / la / los / las (+nombre) + más + adjetivo (+ de)… Here are the structures in Spanish that allow you to make the four different types of comparisons: Noting, of course, that it sounds more natural to say ‘slower’ than ‘less fast’ in English, this is also true for the equivalent Spanish comparatives of inferiority. Whereas, a comparison of inferiority allows you to say that something is ‘less big’, ‘less tall’, or ‘less fast’. In addition, a comparison of superiority allows you to say that something is ‘bigger’, ‘taller’, or ‘faster’. The difference between a comparative and superlative is that a comparative allows you to compare two things, while a superlative allows you to compare one thing to a group. In Spanish, there are four basic ways to make a comparison: We’ll start by looking at the four main structures for making comparisons in Spanish, then we’ll dive into some common errors with the Spanish comparatives mayor, menor, mejor, and peor, plus we’ll look at how to think about the words lo, más and mucho with comparisons. Specifically, you’ll discover how to master comparatives in Spanish by avoiding a few of the most common mistakes that English natives make with these Spanish phrases. In this post, you’ll learn everything you need to know about Spanish comparatives.

Mas y menos 2 translation