Esperanto · Chapter 5 · Lesson 14 · Grammar primer
Comparisons: pli, plej, ol, kiel
Pli bona ol means better than, plej bona means best, tiel bona kiel means as good as. Four little words replace English's -er, -est, more, most and their exceptions.
The short version
pli takes ol, tiel takes kiel, and never cross them
Comparatives are pli plus the adjective, superlatives plej, and nothing changes shape: granda, pli granda, la plej granda. Than is ol, and it follows only pli, malpli or a plej comparison. Equality uses tiel with kiel, or tiom with kiom for amounts. The pairings are fixed, and pli granda kiel is the commonest mistake in the whole area, made weekly by speakers of German and other languages that use one word for both.
Li estas pli alta ol mi.
malpli bona and pli malbona are not the same claim
Mal- gives you the downward direction twice over, and the two are worth keeping apart. Malpli bona is less good, which leaves room for the thing still being decent. Pli malbona is worse, which commits you to it being bad. Everyday speech prefers pli malgranda and pli malbona; malpli is what you reach for when you are being careful about degree. Note also that plej always means most of a set, so very beautiful is tre bela or belega.
malpli bona, pli malbona
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