Lesson Six — More Adjectives
(and Adverbs)

Comparatives and Superlatives

In Esperanto, as in English, adjectives and adverbs can be used for comparing one item with others.  Here are some examples in English:

• This potato is bigger than that one.
• This is the biggest potato I’ve ever seen.
• My new car runs faster than my old one did.
• Of all air liners, the Concorde flies fastest.
• The first book’s plot is more complicated than the second one.
• The last book’s plot is the most complicated of all.

The comparative in English is formed with either the suffix “-er” or the separate word “more”.  The superlative is formed with either the suffix “-est” or the separate word “most”.  Esperanto has only one way of forming these:  the separate words pli for the compative, and plej for the superlative.  As you can see, adverbs compare in the same way as adjectives.

Where English uses the word “than” in comparisons, Esperanto uses the word ol.

Negative comparisons in English are made with the words “less” and “least”; Esperanto uses the words malpli and malplej.

Opposites

You probably noticed that the Esperanto words for “less” and “least” appear to be simply the words for “more” and “most” with the prefix mal- attached.  That is precisely the case.  In fact, this prefix can be used to form the opposite of nearly any word, and this is another factor that reduces the size of Esperanto’s root vocabulary.

Questions or suggestions?  Please write, and I’ll get back to you.

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