Learn How To Compare People and Things in French

In English grammar there are two things called the comparative and the superlative.  Do you know what these are?  What English words are used for the comparative and the superlative?  What grammar structures are used?  Can you give some examples?

In English the comparative and superlative are used to compare people and things in relation to one another.

The words that are used for the comparative and superlative are:  more, less, as…as, the most, and the least. We also sometimes add –er, or –est to a  word. 

For example:

Bill is smart.

John is smarter.

Phil is the smartest.

Phil studied more than Bill.

The constructions for comparison and the superlative in French are a little different. 

Today we are going to learn comparison with adjectives in French.

The words for comparison are easy because they are similar to those used in time or math in French.

Do you remember what word we used for subtraction?

                       

                        moins

In English, what word do we use for addition that has a symbol that looks like this +

                        plus

In French, what word do we use for “also” or “too”?

           

                        aussi

These are the 3 words we will use for comparison as well.

Here are our 3 comparison phrases:

Plus …que                more …than

Moins…que              less…than

Aussi…que               as…as

Comparisons are always structured as follows:

Comparison  – Adjective – Que – Thing you are

            Word                                                       comparing it to

So if we wanted to say the following in French how would we do it?

             Bill is smarter than Bob.

Think about it in terms of the phrases up above.  Would we use:  more smart than, less smart than, or as smart as  - to represent the same thing?

In French, we don’t have –er  we only have the option of more…than so we should use plus…que for our sentence above.

Bill est plus intelligent que Bob.

The adjective in your sentence needs to agree with the subject of the sentence.

For example:

            Monique is smarter than Bill.

           

            Monique est plus intelligente que Bill.

Try the following sentences in French:

1.  French is easier than math.

2.  The boy is bigger than the girl.

3.  Your friends are less shy than you.

4.  I am more patient than my brother.

5.  Your grandparents are as strict as your parents.

1.        Le français est plus facile que les maths.

2.        Le garçon est plus grand que la fille.

3.        Tes copains sont moins timides que toi.

4.        Je suis plus patiente que mon frère.

5.        Tes grands-parents sont aussi stricts que tes parents.

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