Comparative

The regular comparative is almost identical to the English one:

The regular form

frisch > frischer
fresh > fresher
klein > kleiner
small > smaller

There’s also a few things to be aware of and there are only few irregular forms.

groß > größer -------- After o,u,a you often need to add an Umlaut to the comparative
big > bigger
lang > länger
long > longer
teuer > teurer -------- The form with ‘more + adjective’ does not exist in German

expensive > more expensive
müde > müder -------- At times the -e is sacrificed in the comparative
tired > more tired

The most relevant irregular forms

gut > besser

viel > mehr

gern > lieber

hoch > höher

nah > näher

Usage

Klaus: 1,60m 1. Klaus ist groß.

Paul: 1,80m 2. Paul ist größer als Klaus.

Frank: 1,90m

With the comparative we use two add-ons:

In case the things/persons that we compare are different from eachother we use als.

In case they are equal in regards to the compared characteristic, we use (genau) so groß wie and Never (genau) so größer wie. So you’d have to say:

Paul ist genauso groß wie Hans.

One more thing

When these forms function as adjectives, they take the ending according to the rules of adjective declination, which will be covered later on. Just take notice for now. It will come to you after you have dealt with the adjectives.:

Hier ist ein frischerer Apfel.

Hier ist ein kleineres Messer.

This topic is covered in: A2-L42 and A2-L44.