Vergleiche mit Komparativ und Superlativ – Comparisons with comparatives and superlatives

Expressing similarities and differences 

Similarities (so…wie — as…as) 

When comparing two or more people, things, places, etc., you can express that they are the same by using the expressions so … wie …, genauso … wie…, or nicht so … wie … and the basic forms of adjectives.

Die Chefin ist genauso wichtig wie der Angestellte.	The boss is exactly as important as the employee.
Aber der Angestellte ist nicht so humorvoll wie sie!	But the employee is not as funny as her!
Und sie ist so treu wie ein Hund!	And she is as loyal as a dog!

Differences between two entities (der Komparativ – the Comparative)

When comparing two people, things, places, etc., you can say that one is bigger …, smaller …, more …, less … than the other with the comparative forms of the adjectives (for regular adjectives the ending is –er) and expressions such as als … (than) or immer … (more and more…).

Differences among three or more entities (der Superlativ – the Superlative)

When comparing more than two people, things, places, etc., you can express that something is the best, the hippest, the bee’s knees by using the superlative forms of adjectives (for regular adjectives, the construction is am + an adjective ending of –sten) and expressions such as in der ganzen Welt (in the whole world) or unter allen anderen … (among all others)

Regular adjectives

Regular comparative and superlative adjectives merely put an –er and an –est ending on the basic adjective, even if they are very long (in contrast to English, which uses ‘more’ or ‘most’ if the adjective is more than two syllables long, such as diligent or intelligent).

Irregular adjectives

Irregular comparative and superlative adjectives put an –er and an –est ending on the basic adjective, in addition to changes to the word stem. For example, syllables that are one syllable long and have –a-, –o-, –u-.

Adjectives that end in –el, –en or –er drop the –e– before the comparative endings (but keep it in the superlative form!):

Adjectives that end in –s, –ß, –z, –d, –t or a vowel … add an –e before the superlative –st suffix or drop the –s from the –st (adding the Umlaut in the one-syllable –a, –o, –u adjectives):

And of course, some adjectives are utterly irregular! You simply need to memorize these: