COMPARATIVOS Y SUPERLATIVOS

Mrs. O. Pacheco
Spanish I

Es fcil comparar en espaol!

La casa es grande.
El granero es ms
grande que la casa.

El castillo es
el ms grande de
todos.

Otro ejemplo!
Esta flor es bonita.
Esta flor es ms bonita
que la otra.
Esta flor es la ms bonita del
jardn.

!Cmo usar menos!

Este dinosaurio es feroz.
Este dinosaurio es menos
feroz que el otro.
Este dinosaurio es el
menos feroz del
mundo.

Formas irregulares
Bueno, malo, viejo, y joven tienen formas de comparativos y superlativos irregulares.

Bueno Mejor
Malo Peor

Viejo Mayor
Joven Menor

Bueno
La manzana es buena.

El pltano es mejor que la

manzana.
Las cerezas son las
mejores de todas las
frutas

Malo
El chocolate caliente es malo.
El t es peor que el
chocolate caliente.
El caf es el peor de
todas las bebidas calientes.

Viejo

El abuelo es viejo.
El padre es mayor que la
madre.
El abuelo es el mayor de la
familia.

Joven
Los hijos son jvenes.
La madre es menor que el
padre.
El hijo es el menor de
todos.

Ms o menos con nmeros

Hay ms de cinco elefantes.

Hay menos de siete
elefantes.
Nota:
Para decir more than o less than con nmeros
se usa ms de o menos de.

Prctica
Escribe frases comparativas y superlativas .

programas cmicos/divertido/las noticias

Los programas cmicos son ms divertidos
que las noticias.

me gusta/jugo de naranja/jugo de manzana

Me gusta el jugo de naranja ms que el jugo
de manzana. (o)
Me gusta el jugo de naranja menos que el
jugo de manzana.

guisantes/delicioso/ verduras
Los guisantes son los ms deliciosos de las
verduras.

hay/ cinco botellas/mesa

Hay ms de cinco botellas en la mesa. (o)
Hay menos de cinco botellas en la mesa.

pelculas del oeste/interesante/pelculas de

terror
Las pelculas del oeste son ms interesantes
que las pelculas de terror. (o)
Las pelculas del oeste son menos
interesantes que las pelculas de terror.

discos compactos/bueno/cintas
Los discos compactos son mejores que las
cintas.

Beatles/malo/Rolling Stones
Los Beatles son peores que los Rolling
Stones.

Sammy Sosa/jugador/popular/Mark McGuire

Sammy Sosa es un jugador ms popular que
Mark McGuire.

libros/malo/revistas
Los libros son peores que las revistas.

Mi hermana/viejo/mi hermano
Mi hermana es mayor que mi hermano.

Kennedy/joven/todos los presidentes.

Hay/20 estudiantes/en la clase

Comparacin de Igualdad

In English, we often compare two items that have

the same characteristics. We might say that the
two items are alike or equal.
When we are talking about two characteristics
with equal qualities, we use the expression as
as in English.
To compare equal qualities in Spanish, we use tan
como with either an adjective or an adverb.
The adjective or adverb comes in between tan and
como.
John is as tall as I am.
We play as well as he.

Juan es tan alto como yo.

Nosotros jugamos tan bien como l.

Review: what are adjectives?

Adjectives
Adjectives are used to describe, or in grammatical terms to qualify, nouns and other
expressions.
In English, adjectives precede the noun unless for special effects.
In Spanish, the general rule is that most adjectives when used literally to define a noun
follow the noun. Adjectives must agree in number and gender with the noun they are
qualifying.
A few adjectives always precede the noun:
Adjective English translation
Mucho much/many
Tanto so much/so many
varios (always plural) several
otro*(an) Other
Poco little/few
Demasiado too much/many
cada (invariable)each
*Note: In Spanish 'un(a)' ('one', 'a', 'an') cannot precede 'otro/a'. So, for example,'another
book' is simply 'otro libro' with no 'un' in front. 'The other book', however, is 'el otro libro'

Adjectives

Dropping the 'o' in adjectives

Afew common adjectives drop the final 'o' when used
immediately in front of a masculine singular noun. This is called
apocopation.

Adjective

Translation

Example

Translation

Uno*

a/one

Tengo un hijo

I have a son.

Ninguno

None

De nign inters

Of no interest

Malo

Bad

Est de mal humor.

Hes in a bad mood.

Tercero

Third

El tercer piso

The third floor

Alguno

Some

Algn da

Some day

Bueno

Good

Un buen libro

A good book

Primero

First

El primer hijo

The first child

Adjectives

*Note: Spanish makes no distinction between 'a'

and 'one'. So 'Tengo un hermano' can mean 'I have
a brother' or 'I have one brother'.
In answer to the question 'Cuntos hermanos
tienes?' (How many brothers do you have?') the
answer could be 'Tengo un hermano' or 'Tengo
uno'. In the latter case, 'uno' is used as there is no
noun following.

Behaviour of some other

adjectives

'Grande' is shortened to 'gran' when used before

both masculine and feminine singular nouns,
usually with the meaning of 'great'. For example:
'un gran hombre' is 'a great man'. Compare'el ro
grande'- 'the big river'.
In addition, all of the possessive adjectivessuch
as'mi', 'tu', 'su' naturally precede the noun. (see
below)

Adjective agreement

Adjectives agree with the noun which they qualify.

That is, if a noun is feminine singular, the adjective which
qualifies it must be made feminine singular. If a noun is
masculine plural, any adjective in agreement must also be
masculine plural.
The form of the adjective which appears in a dictionary is
the masculine singular form. If the adjective ends in an 'o',
change the 'o' to an 'a' to make it feminine. If the adjective
ends in an 'e' or a consonant, there is no change. However,
adjectives of nationality ending in a consonant do add an
'a'. For example:
'escocs' (Scottish, masculine)
'escocesa' (Scottish,feminine)

Making adjectives plural

To make adjectives plural, add 's' to the singular if it ends

in a vowel, or 'es' if it ends in a consonant. For example:
Un hombre rico- hombres ricos (a rich man/rich men)
Un libro interesante- libros interesantes (an
interesting book/interesting books)
Un coche azul- coches azules (a blue car/blue cars)
Una casa blanca- casas blancas (a white house/white
houses)
Una chica inteligente- chicas inteligentes (a clever
girl/clever girls)
Una leccin difcil- lecciones difciles (a difficult
lesson/difficult lessons)

Possessive adjectives
Possessive adjectives are the words 'my',
'your', 'his'/'her' etc in English. In Spanish,
they too have to agree with the noun which
follows them, as they are adjectives.
They are arranged here as first, second and
third persons, singular and plural. In this
form they always precede the noun.

Possessive adjectives
Singular

Plural

English translation

Mi

Mis

My

Tu

Tus

Your (informal, singular)

Su

Sus

Your (formal, singular), her, his

Nuestro (a)

Nuestros(as)

Ours (male & female)

Vuestro(a)

Vuestros(as)

Your (informal, plural) (male & female)

Su

Sus

Their, your (formal plural)

Review: Adverbs

Adverbs are used to modify verbs, or to say how

actions are performed.
In English, adverbs can generally be recognised
by the ending of '-ly'. The most common way
offorming an adverb in Spanish is toadd '-mente'
to the feminine singular form of an adjective.
Unlike adjectives, the endings of adverbs never
change.

Examples
Adjective/adverb
Lento
lentamente
rpido
rpidamente
normal
normalmente
general
generalmente

English translation
slow
slowly
quick
quickly
normal
normally
general
generally

Adverbs which do not end in 'mente'

Some common adverbs which do not end in
'-mente' are:
Adverb > English translation

bien > well

mal > badly
despacio > slowly (more common than
'lentamente')

'Much' and 'too much'

Both 'mucho' ('much', 'many') and 'demasiado' ('too much',

'too many') can be used either as adjectives or as adverbs.
When used as adjectives, they must agree with the nouns
they describe; when used as adverbs the ending never
changes.
For example:
Tengo muchos libros. I have many books. (adjective)
La mujer trabaja mucho. The woman works hard.
(adverb)
Tengo demasiados libros. I have too many books.
(adjective)
La mujer trabaja demasiado. The woman works too
much. (adverb)

Comparing equal quantities

When we are talking about two characteristics

with equal quanities, we use as muchas or as
manyas in English.
To compare equal quantities in Spanish, wwe use
tantocomo with nouns.
The noun comes in between tanto and como.
Because tanto is an adjective it has to agree with the
noun it modifies. Therefore, there are four forms: tanto,
tantos, tanta, tantas.
I have as many cars as he has.
Yo tengo tantos carros como l.

he has as much money as I.

l tiene tanto dinero como yo.

Review: what are nouns?

'Nouns are the types of words which give the names of

things, people, places, happenings and ideas Nouns can
be singular (referring to one thing) or plural (referring to
many).' (LILT 2001)
All nouns in Spanish are either masculine or feminine,
even those referring to objects or things.
In Spanish, nouns which end in 'o' or refer to a male
human or animal are almost always masculine.
Nouns which end in 'a' or refer to a female human or
animal are almost always feminine.

Nouns

However, there are exceptions, such as:

'el dentista' - the dentist('the female dentist'
would be 'la dentista')
'el mapa'- the map
'el da' - the day
'la mano' - the hand
'la foto' - the photo

Nouns endings

Nouns ending in '-in', '-dad', '-tad' and '-tud' are

almost always feminine. Examples include 'la
cancin' (the song) and 'la cuidad' (the city).
Common exceptions to this are 'el avin' ('the
aeroplane') and 'el camin' ('the lorry').
However not all nouns indicate their gender by
their ending or meaning, so it is important to
learn the gender along with the noun. For
example, 'la flor' ('the flower') is feminine; 'el
guante' ('the glove') is masculine; 'la clase' ('the
class') is feminine.

Plurals (nouns)
In Spanish if a noun ends in an
unstressedvowel, add an 's' to make it
plural. If a noun ends in a consonant or a
stressed vowel, add '-es'. This '-es' is
always pronounced as a separate syllable.
Examples:
'cafs' - cafs or coffees
'tes' - teas

EL FIN

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