German Grammar Explained /
Comparisons
"Shall I compare thee to a summer's day? Thou art more lovely and more temperate."
William Shakespeare
Have you always wanted to quote Shakespeare in German? We've got you covered! We shall start by learning the comparatives:
Du bist schöner als eine Blume.
You are more beautiful than a flower.
First, try to build the comparative of these adjectives*:
hell ⇒
sympathisch ⇒
klein ⇒
hübsch ⇒
Very easy! Just add an -er. So it's heller, sympathischer,...
Genau! Let's take a look at a small group of adjectives that are a little more challenging!
If lang is like warm, kalt, jung, groß, alt and lang ⇒ länger, what does the comparative of the other adjectives look like?*
lang ⇒ länger
warm ⇒
kalt ⇒
jung ⇒
groß ⇒
alt ⇒
That's easy!
What if none of the items being compared is more than the other? What if they are equally bright, pretty or young?
Then you are clearly not talking about the two of us... hahaha.
Ahem...
Du bist (genau)so klug wie ich.
You are (just) as clever as me.
You can use (genau)so + adjective to stress the likeness.
Compare two things
that aren't alike | → | schöner als ... |
Compare two things
that are alike | → | (genau)so schön wie ... |
*Solutions: heller, sympathischer, kleiner, hübscher, wärmer, kälter, jünger, größer, älter