3.15 · Practice ready
Comparatives
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Comparatives
Simple invariant forms, compound agreement, standards of comparison, and irregular families
Simple invariant forms, compound agreement, standards of comparison, and irregular families
Before you start
- Prerequisites
- Module 3.14
- Estimated time
- 45 minutes
- Lesson steps
- 10
Deliberately not taught here
- Boundary: Comparison belongs primarily to scalar qualitative meanings. Context can coerce other adjectives into scales, but not every adjective has a natural comparative.
Small steps
What you will learn
- What can be compared A comparative orders two values on a scale such as size, speed, age, intensity, or quality.
- Productive -ее and -ей Many adjectives form an invariant simple comparative by replacing the long ending with -ее; -ей is a shorter variant common in speech and verse.
- Comparatives in -е and consonant alternation A productive historical pattern creates -е forms with changes at the end of the stem.
- -ше forms and suppletion Several high-frequency comparatives use -ше or a different lexical stem.
- Invariant predicate and adverb uses A simple comparative has one form for every gender, number, and case context.
- The standard with чем Чем introduces an explicit comparison clause or phrase and does not itself force one universal case.
- The genitive standard A simple comparative can take a compact genitive standard without чем.
- Compound comparatives with более and менее Более/менее stays invariant; the following long adjective remains fully agreeing and declines normally.
- По- comparatives, usage, and spelling Productive по- forms such as побо́льше and поти́ше are written solid and often mean 'somewhat/more' or soften a request.
- Comparative assessment Choose a scalar meaning, form the comparative, and express the standard without corrupting agreement.
Mastery
Ready means you can...
- form regular, alternating, and suppletive simple comparatives
- use invariant comparatives as predicates and adverb-like modifiers
- express the comparison standard with чем or genitive
- build fully agreeing compound comparatives with более/менее