Adjective: Comparison
Grammar
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The main pattern for comparison is the following:
| Positive | Comparative + enn (than) | Superlative | English |
| fin | finere | finest | fine – finer – finest |
| kald | kaldere | kaldest | cold – colder – coldest |
| varm | varmere | varmest | warm – warmer – warmest |
Examples:
| Vinteren er kald i Fjordvik. | The winter is cold in Fjordvik. |
| Vinteren er kaldere i Fjordvik enn i Paris. | The winter is colder in Fjordvik than in Paris. |
| Vinteren er kaldest i Sibir. | The winter is coldest in Siberia. |
Det er kaldt ved Bajkalsjøen
Exceptions
1) Adjectives ending in -ig and -som take only -st in the superlative form:
| Positive | Comparative + enn (than) | Superlative | English |
| billig | billigere | billigst | cheap |
| hyggelig | hyggeligere | hyggeligst | nice |
| morsom | morsommere | morsomst | amusing |
Men det er varmere og hyggeligere ved Bajkal om sommeren
2) An -e disappears in the comparative and superlative form when the adjectives end in -el, -en and -er:
| Positive | Comparative + enn (than) | Superlative | English |
| travel | travlere | travlest | busy |
| moden | modnere | modnest | ripe, mature |
| vakker | vakrere | vakrest | beautiful |
NB: In vakker the double -kk reduce to -k!
Naturen er det vakreste på jord…
3) Many long adjectives ending in -sk and adjectives ending in -e are compared with mer (more) and mest (most).
Adjectives from the present perfect (example: berømt) and several long words and some foreign words are also compared in the same way:
| Positive | Comparative + enn (than) | Superlative | English |
| praktisk | mer praktisk | mest praktisk | practical |
| moderne | mer moderne | mest moderne | modern |
| berømt | mer berømt | mest berømt | famous |
| interessant | mer interessant | mest interessant | interesting |
| absurd | mer absurd | mest absurd | absurd |
Blant detektivene er Hercule Poirot den mest berømte, n’est-ce pas?
Irregular comparative and superlative
Some adjectives, as you already know, are irregular and also present irregular comparison.
Here you find a short list of the most frequent used irregular adjectives:
| Positive | Comparative + enn (than) | Superlative | English |
| gammel | eldre | eldst | old |
| god/bra | bedre | best | good |
| ille | verre | verst | bad |
| lang | lengre | lengst | long |
| liten | mindre | minst | small |
| stor | større | størst | big |
| tung | tyngre | tyngst | heavy |
| ung | yngre | yngst | young |
| mange | flere | flest | many |
| mye | mer | mest | much |
Examples:
| Cecilie er ung. | Cecilie is young. |
| Dina er yngre enn Cecilie. | Dina is younger than Cecilie. |
| Alex er yngst. | Alex is (the) youngest. |
Alex er yngst og minst i familien
Note the following:
1) The comparative form is invariable.
The gender of the noun and the number (singular or plural) does not matter.
-
Dina er yngre enn Cecilie.
-
Alex er yngre enn Dina.
-
Alex og Dina er yngre enn Cecilie.
2) When the superlative form is placed in front of a definite noun the adjectives end in -e.
In addition, the definite articles den, det and de, which agree in gender and number with the noun, are required.
NB: Please review once again the double definite construction of Adjectives from Course 2!
| den yngste jenta | the youngest girl |
| det fineste huset | the nicest house |
| de beste bøkene | the best books |
Mange synes Bergen er den fineste byen i Norge
3) When the superlative form appears as predicate after verbs like å være (to be), we can use the indefinite or the definite form of the superlative:
| Alex er yngst i familien. | Alex er den yngste i familien. | Alex is (the) youngest in the family. |
4) We use the superlative form also when we compare two items:
| Hvem er eldst/den eldste, Dina eller Alex? | Who is older, Dina or Alex? |
| Hvilken jakke er billigst/den billigste, den røde eller den svarte? | Which jacket is cheaper, the red or the black one? |
| Hvilken by er størst/den største, Trondheim eller Oslo? | Which city is bigger, Trondheim or Oslo? |
NB: In English you will prefer using the comparative.
Trondheim er Norges eldste by. Den ble grunnlagt av Olav Tryggvason i år 997
Adverbs
As you know, an adverb describes a verb, whereas an adjective describes a noun or a pronoun.
We can form adverbs by using the neuter form of an adjective:
| Alex puster tungt. | Alex breathes heavily. |
| Alex snakker høyt. | Alex speaks loudly. |
© NTNU
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