ALL: Adjectives - Comparative and Superlative in German

Adjectives - Comparative and Superlative in German

Adjectives are usually described as words that can describe nouns. But what really distinguishes an adjective from a noun? One major factor is that an adjective can be used for comparison, of which there are three degrees:

• Positive - the base form of the adjective (big)
• Comparative - more, -er (bigger) - this is used to compare two things, so will usually be followed by the word than (bigger than...)
• Superlative - most, -est (biggest) - this is used to say that something is the highest degree, so it is one thing compared to all others

A noun (whether in English or German) can be used to describe another noun:

• The dog is a boy.
• It is a boy dog.

But a descriptive noun cannot be used comparatively:

• The dog is more boy./The boyer dog.
• The dog is most boy./The boyest dog. 
  • more boy/boyer and most boy/boyest make no sense, because boy is a noun, not an adjective

What happens when you replace the noun boy with an adjective, like big? You can now use comparison:

• Positive:
  • The dog is big.
  • The big dog...
• Comparative:
  • The dog is bigger (than...)...
  • The bigger dog...
• Superlative:
  • The dog is biggest.
  • The biggest dog...

Comparative Adjectives in German

Superlative Adjectives in German

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