French comparisons with adjectives and adverbs

Adjectives and adverbs describe the state of a noun or a verb respectively. To make a comparison using adjectives or adverbs in French, there are three phrases you need to learn:

‘plus [adjective/adverb] que’ = more... than

‘aussi [adjective/adverb] que’ = as… as

‘moins [adjective/adverb] que’ = less... than

While some adjectives in English take an ‘-er’ suffix instead of ‘more’ when used in a comparison of superiority - for instance, ‘easy’ becomes ‘easier’, ‘small’ becomes ‘smaller’, etc. - adjectives in French will almost always take the comparative words ‘plus’, ‘moins’ or ‘aussi’ - the form of the word itself doesn’t change. There are exceptions to this, however, known as irregular comparatives - find out more about these in Lesson 13 of The Complete French Course.

You should note that the adjectives still need to reflect the gender and number of the nouns they describe. Adverbs, however, never change.

L'arbre est plus grand que la maison - The tree is taller than the house.

Elle est aussi courageuse que son frère - She is as courageous as her brother.

Le fauteuil est moins confortable que le canapé - The armchair is less comfortable than the sofa.

Ils marchent plus rapidement que toi - They walk more quickly than you.

Elle chante aussi bien que son professeur - She sings as well as her teacher.

Elle court moins souvent qu'avant - She runs less often than she did before.

For more on comparatives, be sure to check out Lesson 13 of our Complete French Course.