#150: Irregular comparatives and superlatives

The following adjectives have regular and irregular comparatives and superlatives. The irregular comparitives are more commonly used:

  • buono
    good regular comparative: più buono = better
    irregular comparative: migliore = better

    regular superlative: il più buono = the best
    irregular superlative: il/la migliore, i/le migliori = the best

  • cattivo
    bad regular comparative:

    più cattivo = worse
    irregular comparative: peggiore = worse

    regular superlative: il più cattivo/a/i/e = the worst
    irregular superlative: il/la peggiore, i/le peggiori = the worst

  • grande
    big, great

    regular comparative:
    più grande = bigger, greater
    irregular comparative: maggiore = bigger, greaterregular superlative: il più grande = the biggest, the greatest
    irregular superlative: il/la maggiore, i/le maggiori = the biggest, the greatest
  • piccolo
    small, little

    regular comparative: più piccolo = smaller, lesser
    irregular comparative: minore = smaller lesserregular superlative: il più piccolo = the smallest, the least
    irregular superlative: il/la minore, i/le minori = the smallest, the least

Maggiore and minore can also be used to mean older and younger, respectively, when referring to members of the family. When referring to physical size, grande and piccolo are used:

Mia sorella è la minore.
My sister is the youngest.

La casa di Giovanni è piu grande della casa dei miei genitori.
John’s house is larger than my parent’s house.

The following adverbs have irregular comparatives:

  • bene
    wellScrive bene.
    She writes well.

    meglio
    better

    Scrive meglio degli altri.
    She writes better than the others.

  • male
    badlyHa giocato male ieri.
    He played badly yesterday.

    peggio
    worse

    Ha giocato peggio di me.
    He played worse than I.

To form the superlative, add di tutti to the comparative forms:

Giovanna canta meglio.
Jane sings better.

Giovanni canta meglio di tutti.
Jane sings better than anyone.

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