German adjective comparison
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An adjective or adverb has three forms for comparison, which are called "Positiv", "Komparativ" and "Superlativ" in German. Look at a few examples to see how that works:
Mary is as nice as John. (positive)
Mary is nicer than Sue. (comparative)
Mary is the nicest girl in class. (superlative)
As you can see, the principles are pretty similar to English:
- The positive is the basic form.
- The comparative is formed by adding er and possibly umlauting the stressed vowel.
- The superlative is formed by adding (e)st and possibly umlauting the stressed vowel. The E is only used after D, T or an S sound.
No matter which form you use, you have to decline it according to case, gender and the kind of article used.
The superlative is a little special:
- When the adjective stands alone (without a noun), it must be preceded by the preposition "am", and it receives the declension suffix "-en", thus forming 'am ADJesten (where "ADJ" stands for the basic form of the adjective).
- The same applies to adverbs.
- When the adjective precedes a noun, it must be given with the definite article. An indefinite superlative would make no sense.
In English, some adjectives use the words "more" and "most" to form their comparative and superlative forms. This does not exist in German; all adjective follow the same pattern.
Examples: small - smaller - smallest = klein - kleiner - am kleinsten
interesting - more interesting - most interesting = interessant - interessanter - am interessantesten
As with every grammar rule, there are a few irregular cases:
gern - lieber - am liebsten
groß - größer - am größten
gut - besser - am besten (English good - better - best)
hoch - höher - am höchsten
nah - näher - am nächsten
viel - mehr - am meisten (English much - more - most)
Finally a few words about how to form sentences with that. For a positive comparison, use "(genau)so ADJ wie", and with the comparative, use "ADJer als":
Maria ist (genau)so nett wie Hans. = Mary is (just) as nice as John.
Maria ist ein nettes Mädchen. = Mary is a nice girl.
Maria ist netter als Susi. = Mary is nicer than Sue.
Maria ist ein netteres Mädchen als Susi. = Mary is a nicer girl than Sue.
Maria ist am nettesten. = Mary is nicest.
Maria ist das netteste Mädchen der Klasse. = Mary is the nicest girl in class.
The Exercise centre contains an exercise on this topic: [1]
>> languages >> German >> German grammar >> German adjectives
German adjective comparison (dialect case study)
