A Simple Guide to Making Comparisons in Spanish

When learning a new language, it’s quite important to learn how to compare things. In this blog article, we’ll look at Spanish comparatives and superlatives, learn about making comparisons in Spanish, and also some handy phrases that can be slipped into conversation or writing!

A comparative compares two things, while a superlative describes something to the highest possible degree. For example:

Comparatives

Let’s start with comparatives—those are the words which often end in –er in English. We need to know how to say that A is ‘more + adjective’ or ‘less + adjective’ than B. The formula is pretty simple. The words for ‘more’ and ‘less’ are these:

All you have to do is stick más or menos before the adjective (that’s the word which describes a noun), then add que, meaning ‘than.’

 So that's: más or menos + adjective + que

Let’s look at some examples:

This formula also works for adverbs (words which describe verbs), as you can see here:

Superlatives

Superlatives allow us to say that something is ‘the most + adjective’ or ‘the least + adjective.’ All you have to do is add el/la/los/las before más or menos. You choose whichever one matches the noun, and remember to make sure the adjective also agrees with the noun.

Some examples will make it clearer.

Top tip: to make something plural, you’ll need to add –s or –es.

Irregular

As usual, you won’t get away with learning Spanish without learning exceptions to the rules! There aren’t too many to learn, but they are really common, so it’s worth taking time to practice them.

Don’t forget, we have these irregularities in English, too! You wouldn’t describe something as ‘gooder’ or ‘badder’ than something else, you’d say ‘better’ or ‘worse.’ The same kinds of words are irregular in Spanish.

*As well as adjectives, you may want to use comparatives and superlatives with adverbs. It’s the difference between “you did a good job” and “you did the job well.”

Más de/Menos de

So far we’ve looked at más and menos with que. There are some occasions when you’ll need to use más de or menos de. This is for when you’re using numbers or quantities.

Phrases that use comparatives

There are several phrases that are super useful to know, and they all involve some form of comparison. Let’s take a look:

*This is legit how Spanish speakers write ‘haha,’ which makes sense, because the Spanish ‘j’ sound is quite like the English ‘h’ sound! Jajaja.

Quiz time!

What ~better~ way to finish off than to have a little practice?! Use the guide above to help you translate the following sentences from Spanish into English. If you’re feeling daring, try and translate the English phrases into Spanish, too!

In case you need it, this glossary has some of the words used in the context of the quiz!

1. Hay más adultos* que niños.

*Note that we can use comparatives with nouns, too!

2. Tengo menos dinero que tú.

3. Carolina baila más hermosamente que Juana.

4. Salgo menos frecuentemente que mi gemelo.

5. Clara es la más valiente.

6. Miguel es el menos egoísta.

7. Soy una persona buena, pero mi marido es mejor.

8. Ayer fue un día malo. Hoy fue peor.

9. Yo canto mejor que ella.

10. Mi hermano es mayor que yo.

11. Más que nada, quiero verte.

12. Vi más de 150 coches.

13. Juanca es menor que yo.

14. Eres tan terco que tu papá.

15. Es cada vez más difícil.

16. La casa está más o menos lista.

17. ¡Qué examen más difícil!

BONUS QUESTIONS:

18. Pedro dances more often than Laura.

19. I want to spend as much as possible.

20. Cristina is more important than him.

I understand Spanish better.

Well done for getting through the quiz; there were some tough ones in there!

Final word

Hopefully this has given you a solid basis for making comparisons in Spanish. Remember to make a daily learning habit—practice a little every day, and you should see your Spanish going de bien en mejor!