Comparing things in GermanLesson 8
How do you compare things in German? This lesson is all about comparing things.
- How to do Basic Comparisons
- How to Form the Superlative in German
Basic Comparisons
As a reminder, here are a few description words, we've already learned:
What would you say if you wanted to say that Tom is smaller than Sahil, or that Amina is smarter than Paul? For this, you will need to know how to turn these words into their comparatives. In English, that's easy: small becomes smaller, and smart becomes smarter. In German, it's pretty similar:
When the adjectives contain a vowel in the first syllable, these often turn into their Umlaut counterpart:
The Superlative
What do you say if Sahil isn't just taller than Tom, but also taller than anyone else in the room? What do you say if Amina isn't only smarter than Paul, but the smartest student in class? The simple answer is that you need a superlative for that: tallest, smartest - and so on.