LOS COMPARATIVOS

Comparisons of inequality

When one person or thing is more or less than another person or thing.

EX: Spanish is more fun than history. EX: Spanish is less difficult than

math. EX: Marco is taller than Adriana.

En inglés…

Most comparisons are made by adding –er to an adjective.

Person #1 is ______-er than Person #2.

Choose two classmates and practice making a few comparisons now.

Did you run across any adjectives that don’t work with –ER on the end? What were they?

En español

-ER doesn’t exist so Spanish speakers use:

“MÁS + adjective + que” for more than

han “MENOS + adjective + que” for less than

This formula works for almost every adjective in the whole language. Español es más fácil que inglés.

Español tiene menos excepciones que inglés.

Compara las personas, usa más o menos + adjetivo + que

DONALD TRUMP DONALD DRIVER

Compara las personas

TAYLOR SWIFT ADELE

Compara las personas

LEBRON JAMES KOBE BRYANT

Compara con más/menos + adjetivo + que

EL MONSTRUO DE BIZCOCHOS EL PÁJARO GRANDE

LAS EXCEPCIONES

In English we don’t use “gooder” or “badder” or “funner” or “difficulter” or many other adjectives that require modification. These are called EXCEPTIONS.

Spanish has only 4 exceptions. These four adjectives change completely, and never take MÁS or MENOS in front of them.

No MÁS o MENOS with these! BUENO MEJOR (BETTER) MALO PEOR (WORSE) JOVEN MENOR (YOUNGER) VIEJO MAYOR (OLDER)

A couple of tricks to help you remember them:

Mayor (old) Mayors of cities are older people. Menor (young) like minor. Minors can’t vote,

drink, smoke or see “R” movies bc they are young!

Unos ejemplos

Taco Bell es peor que Subway.(Taco Bell is worse than Subway.)

Burger King es mejor que McDonalds.(Burger King is better than McDonalds)

Yo soy mayor que mi hermana.(I am older than my sister)

Notice, no MÁS or MENOS in these sentences!

Practiquemos…

RIHANNA BEYONCÉ

Practiquemos…

SUBWAY PIZZA HUT

Practiquemos

BETTY WHITE JUSTIN BIEBER

Comparisons of Equality

When the comparing is between 2 people or things that are equitable we have to make some choices.

First, ask yourself if what you are comparing is “countable” (noun) or not countable (adverb, adjective)

If it is not countable, the formula is:Person #1 +TAN + adj./adverb +

COMO + person #2.

Jessica es tan rubia como Britney

JESSICA SIMPSON BRITNEY SPEARS

LeBron es tan atlético como Shaq

LEBRON JAMES SHAQUILLE O’NEAL

Practiquemos (equal + adjective)

TAYLOR LAUTNER ROBERT PATTERSON

Equal comparisons with nouns

If what you are comparing is countable, there are choices for the formula. Since most things in Spanish agree, we have 4 choices:

Tanto + single masc. nouns Tanta + single femin. nouns Tantos + plural masc. nouns Tantas + plural femin. nouns

Yo tengo tantos perros como él.

YO ÉL

Yo tengo _____ tarea ____ Paco.

YO PACO

Ellos gastan ___dinero ___yo.

ELLOS YO

Important to remember…

Más/menos + que for unequal comparisons

Bueno, malo, joven, viejo are exceptions change forms. (mejor,peor,mayor,menor)

These 4 exceptions don’t use a más or menos.

Tan + como for equal comparisons of things you can’t count.

Tanto/a, tantos/as for things you can count.