COMPARATIVOS Y SUPERLATIVOS
Mrs. O. Pacheco
Spanish I
¡Es fácil comparar en español!

La casa es grande.
El granero es más
grande que la casa.
El castillo es
el más grande de
todos.
¡Otro ejemplo!
Esta flor es bonita.
Esta flor es más bonita
que la otra.
Esta flor es la más bonita del
jardín.
!Cómo 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
Viejo  Mayor
Malo  Peor
Joven  Menor
Bueno
La manzana es buena.
El plátano es mejor que la
manzana.
Las cerezas son las
mejores de todas las frutas
Malo
El chocolate caliente es malo.
El té es peor que el
chocolate caliente.
El café 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 jóvenes.
La madre es menor que el
padre.
El hijo es el menor de todos.
Más o menos con números
Hay más de cinco elefantes.
Hay menos de siete
elefantes.
Nota:
Para decir “more than” o “less than” con números
se usa más de o menos de.
Práctica
Escribe frases comparativas y superlativas.
programas cómicos/divertido/las noticias
Los programas cómicos son más divertidos
que las noticias.
me gusta/jugo de naranja/jugo de manzana
Me gusta el jugo de naranja más 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 más deliciosos de las
verduras.
hay/ cinco botellas/mesa
Hay más de cinco botellas en la mesa. (o)
Hay menos de cinco botellas en la mesa.
películas del oeste/interesante/películas de
terror
Las películas del oeste son más interesantes
que las películas de terror. (o)
Las películas del oeste son menos
interesantes que las películas 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 más 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
Comparación 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 él.
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
• A few 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 nigún interés
Of no interest
Malo
Bad
Está de mal humor.
He’s in a bad mood.
Tercero
Third
El tercer piso
The third floor
Alguno
Some
Algún día
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 '¿Cuántos 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 río
grande' - 'the big river'.
 In addition, all of the possessive adjectives such
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:
'escocés' (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 lección difícil - lecciones difíciles (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
of forming an adverb in Spanish is to add '-mente'
to the feminine singular form of an adjective.
 Unlike adjectives, the endings of adverbs never
change.

Examples
Adjective/adverb
Lento
lentamente
rápido
rápidamente
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 much…as” or “as
many…as” in English.
• To compare equal quantities in Spanish, wwe use
“tanto…como” 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 él.
– he has as much money as I.
– Él 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 día' - the day
• 'la mano' - the hand
• 'la foto' - the photo
Nouns endings
Nouns ending in '-ión', '-dad', '-tad' and '-tud' are
almost always feminine. Examples include 'la
canción' (the song) and 'la cuidad' (the city).
Common exceptions to this are 'el avión' ('the
aeroplane') and 'el camión' ('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
unstressed vowel, 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:
 'cafés' - cafés or coffees
 'tes' - teas
EL FIN
 Click on link for more practice.
• http://quizlet.com/666489/scatter/