Table of Contents

• Part 1: Spanish Comparatives (Making Comparisons)
  • Superiority: "More ... than"
  • Inferiority: "Less ... than"
  • Equality: "As ... as"
• Part 2: Irregular Comparatives (The Rule Breakers)
• Part 3: Spanish Superlatives (The Best and the Worst)
  • Relative Superlatives: "The most/least ... in/of ..."
  • Absolute Superlatives: Adding "-ísimo"
• Common Mistakes to Avoid
• You're Ready to Compare!

Spanish Comparatives and Superlatives: A Complete B1 Guide

Ever tried to explain why you prefer one restaurant over another? Or which movie is the best you've ever seen? To do that in Spanish, you'll need comparatives and superlatives. They're the tools we use to say something is "more," "less," "better," "worse," or the absolute "best" or "worst."

Don't worry, it's not as tricky as it sounds. By the end of this guide, you'll be comparing your favorite seriesseries and declaring the most deliciosadelicious paellapaella like a pro. ¡Vamos!


Part 1: Spanish Comparatives (Making Comparisons)

Comparatives are all about putting two things side-by-side and seeing how they measure up. Is one taller? More expensive? Less interesting? In Spanish, we have formulas for three types of comparisons: superiority, inferiority, and equality.

Superiority: "More ... than"

This is probably the one you'll use most often. The formula is simple and consistent.

Formula: más + [adjective/adverb/noun] + que

Let's see it in action:

• With an adjective:

  • Mi cochecar es más rápido que el tuyo. (My car is faster than yours.)
  • Ana es más alta que su hermanobrother. (Ana es taller than her brother.)

• With an adverb:

  • Hablas español más fluidamente que yo. (You speak Spanish more fluently than I do.)
  • Ella correruns más rápido que él. (She runs faster than he does.)

• With a noun:

  • Tengo más librosbooks que María. (I have more books than María.)

Inferiority: "Less ... than"

The logic is exactly the same as superiority, but we just swap más for menos.

Formula: menos + [adjective/adverb/noun] + que

• With an adjective:

  • Esta películamovie es menos interesante que la última que vimos. (This movie is less interesting than the last one we saw.)
  • El examenexam fue menos difícil que lo que esperaba. (The exam was less difficult than what I expected.)

• With a noun:

  • Hay menos gentepeople en la playabeach hoy que ayer. (There are fewer people at the beach today than yesterday.)

Equality: "As ... as"

This one has two variations, depending on whether you're comparing qualities (adjectives/adverbs) or quantities (nouns).

Comparing Qualities (Adjectives & Adverbs)

Formula: tan + [adjective/adverb] + como

• Tu perrodog es tan inteligente como el mío. (Your dog is as smart as mine.)
• CocinoI cook tan bien como mi madre. (I cook as well as my mother.)

Comparing Quantities (Nouns)

Here, we use tanto instead of tan, and it must agree in gender and number with the noun it describes.

Formula: tanto/a/os/as + [noun] + como

• No tengo tanto tiempotime como tú. (tiempo is masculine singular)
• Ella tiene tanta pacienciapatience como una santa. (paciencia is feminine singular)
• Leí tantos librosbooks como pude este verano. (libros is masculine plural)
• Compraron tantas manzanasapples como naranjas. (manzanas is feminine plural)

Part 2: Irregular Comparatives (The Rule Breakers)


Just like in English ("good" becomes "better," not "gooder"), Spanish has a few essential irregulars you just have to memorize. The good news? There aren't many!

Adjective	English	Comparative Form	English
bueno/a	good	mejor	better
malo/a	bad	peor	worse
grande	big	mayor	bigger/older
pequeño/a	small	menor	smaller/younger

Important: When you use these irregulars, you do not use más or menos. The "more" or "less" is already built-in!

• Incorrecto: más mejor
• Correcto: mejor

Examples:

• El chocolatechocolate es mejor que la vainillavanilla. (Chocolate is better than vanilla.)
• El climaweather hoy está peor que ayer. (The weather today is worse than yesterday.)
• Mi hermanasister es mayor que yo. (My sister is older than me.)
• Tu casahouse es menor que la mía. (Your house is smaller than mine.)

Part 3: Spanish Superlatives (The Best and the Worst)


Superlatives take comparison to the next level. We're no longer comparing just two things; we're saying something is the "most" or "least" out of an entire group.

Relative Superlatives: "The most/least ... in/of ..."

This identifies the top (or bottom) of a specific group.

Formula: el/la/los/las + [noun (optional)] + más/menos + [adjective] + de + [group]

The structure might look long, but it's logical. Let's break it down:

1. el/la/los/las: The definite article must agree with the noun.
2. [noun]: The thing you're describing (e.g., the city, the book, the person). This is often omitted if it's clear from context.
3. más/menos: "most" or "least".
4. [adjective]: The quality (e.g., big, interesting, expensive).
5. de: "of" or "in" the group.

Examples:

• Es la ciudadcity más bonita de España. (It's the most beautiful city in Spain.)
• Este es el restauranterestaurant menos caro del barrioneighborhood. (This is the least expensive restaurant in the neighborhood.)
• Mis abuelos son los más amableskind de la familia. (My grandparents are the kindest in the family.)

Irregular Superlatives

Remember our irregular friends mejor, peor, mayor, and menor? To make them superlative, you just add the definite article (el/la/los/las). It's that easy!

• el/la mejor - the best
• el/la peor - the worst
• el/la mayor - the oldest / the biggest
• el/la menor - the youngest / the smallest

Examples:

• Messi es el mejor jugador del mundoworld. (Messi is the best player in the world.)
• Fue la peor ideaidea de todas. (It was the worst idea of all.)
• Soy el menor de mis hermanos. (I am the youngest of my siblings.)

Absolute Superlatives: Adding "-ísimo"

What if you want to say something is extremely good, incredibly big, or very, very interesting, without comparing it to anything else? Welcome to the absolute superlative!

We form this by dropping the final vowel of an adjective and adding -ísimo/a/os/as.

• rico (rich/delicious) -> riquísimo (extremely delicious)
• fácil (easy) -> facilísimo (super easy)
• guapa (beautiful) -> guapísima (gorgeous)
• rápidos (fast) -> rapidísimos (incredibly fast)

Examples:

• La comidafood estaba riquísima. (The food was absolutely delicious.)
• ¡El examentest fue facilísimo! (The test fue super easy!)
• Estamos contentísimos con la noticia. (We are extremely happy with the news.)

Common Mistakes to Avoid

1. Que vs. De: Use que for standard comparisons (más alto que). Use de for superlatives to define the group (el más alto de la clase). Also, use de before numbers in a comparison: Tengo más de cinco euros. (I have more than five euros.)

2. Más bueno vs. Mejor: While you might hear más bueno colloquially, especially when talking about people's kindness, the grammatically correct form for "better" is always mejor. The same goes for más malo vs. peor. Stick to the irregulars!

3. Forgetting Agreement: Remember that adjectives, nouns, and articles must always agree in gender and number. This is especially true for tanto/a/os/as and the articles in superlatives (el/la/los/las).

You're Ready to Compare!

Phew, that was a lot! But now you have all the tools you need to make comparisons in Spanish. You can say that one thing is better than another, that something is the absolute best, or that a meal was riquísima.

The key is practice. Start small. Compare two objects on your desk. Describe the oldest person in your family. Tell a friend about the best series you're watching. The more you use these structures, the more natural they'll become. ¡Mucha suerte!