This is the twenty-ninth lesson in our beginner level Spanish course and we will look at Comparing in Spanish.
In our previous lesson we practised using Spanish Adjectives with Transport. If you missed that lesson, we recommend reviewing it now so that you are up to speed with Spanish adjectives. We will be using more adjectives in this lesson as we practice Comparing in Spanish.
Basically, adjectives (adjetivos) are words which describe nouns (things) and we need to remember that many of them change their ending according to the gender of the noun they describe. Let’s see some new Spanish adjectives..
Grande: Big
Pequeño: Small
Ancho: Wide
Estrecho: Narrow
Alto: Tall/High
Bajo: Short/Low
Pesado: Heavy
Ligero: Light
Suave: Smooth
Áspero: Rough
Duro: Hard
Blando: Soft
Fuerte: Strong
Débil: Weak
If you wish to compare two things you need to know how in Spanish to say Bigger, Smaller, Wider, Narrower, etc than… Don’t worry, these structures are straightforward in Spanish and we will learn them now…
Comparing in Spanish:
Más… que: More… than
Menos… que: Less… than
Tan… como: As… as
As you can see, in Spanish we don’t say Bigger, Smaller, Wider, Narrower, etc than… we say More big, small, wide, narrow, etc than… Let’s practice Comparing in Spanish now with these new structures and the new adjectives we saw earlier…
Rusia es más grande que España: Russia is bigger than Spain
España es mas pequeña que Rusia: Spain is smaller than Russia
El río Amazonas es más ancho que el río Ebro: The river Amazon is wider than the river Ebro.
El río Ebro es más estrecho que el río Amazonas: The river Ebro is narrower than the river Amazon
El Monte Everest es más alto que el monte Teide: Mount Everest is higher than Mount Teide
El monte Teide es más pequeño que el monte Everest: Mount Teide es lower than mount Everest
Mi profesora es más alta que tu profesora: My teacher is taller than your teacher
Tu profesora es más baja que mi profesora: Your teacher is shorter than my teacher
Mi mochila es más pesada que tu mochila: My rucksack is heavier than your rucksack
Tu mochila es más ligera que mi mochila: Your rucksack is lighter than my rucksack
As you can see the adjectives alto, bajo, pesado, and ligero have changed to alta, baja, pesada, and ligera in the final two examples. This is because the nouns (things) they describe are feminine (La profesora/La mochila).
Finally, lets see some examples with Tan… como: As… as:
Tu piel es tan suave como el piel de un bebé: You skin is as soft as the skin of a baby
Esta tarta está tan dura como una piedra: This cake is as hard as a rock
Mi padre es tan alto como tu padre: My father is as tall as your father
Irregular Comparative Adjectives
Before we finish you should also be aware that there are a few Spanish adjectives which do not follow the same rules when making comparisons. The most commonly used of these are Better, Worse, Older/Bigger, Younger, Smaller. These are irregular comparative adjectives and are used as follows:
Mejor que..: Better than..
Peor que..: Worse than..
Mayor que..: Older/Bigger than..
Menor que..: Younger/Smaller than..
The key is to Comparing in Spanish is to build your repertoire of Spanish adjectives. The structures are easy to use and simple to remember, but there are many adjectives. As we have discussed before, grammar is not the biggest challenge when learning Spanish, building vocabulary is. Not because learning vocabulary is difficult, rather because there are so many words and it takes time to build a repertoire. Start sooner rather than later and try learning 5-10 words a day,
