German Superlative and Comparative: -er, am -sten and Umlauts

German compares things the way English compares short words, and then does it for long words too.

English says small, smaller, smallest but interesting, more interesting, most interesting, switching systems somewhere around the third syllable. German never switches. Every adjective, whatever its length, takes -er for the comparative and -sten for the superlative. That makes German comparison one of the easier parts of the grammar, with two wrinkles worth your attention: a handful of short adjectives add an umlaut, and the superlative has two forms depending on where it sits in the sentence.

The comparative: add -er

The last three rows are the point. wichtiger and interessanter are what English would build with more, and German does not. mehr wichtig is not a comparative; it is a mistake that marks the speaker as English within a second.

Than is als:

Die Stadt ist kleiner als London. - The town is smaller than London.

Das Auto ist schneller als der Bus. - The car is faster than the bus.

For equality, German uses so ... wie, or genauso ... wie for emphasis:

Er ist so groß wie sein Vater. - He is as tall as his father.

Sie ist genauso alt wie ich. - She is exactly as old as me.

Keep als and wie apart. After a comparative it is always als. You will hear größer wie in parts of Germany and Austria, but it is regional and informal, and written German treats it as an error.

Than me or than I: the case after als

English says taller than me and only pedants insist on taller than I. German has no such argument, because the word after als takes the same case as the thing it is compared with. The subject of the sentence is nominative, so the comparison is too:

Er ist größer als ich. - He is taller than me.

Sie arbeitet mehr als du. - She works more than you.

größer als mich is the English habit leaking through, and it is wrong. The same logic applies when the comparison is an object: Ich sehe ihn öfter als dich means I see him more often than (I see) you, with dich in the accusative because it is being seen too.

Adverbs compare the same way

German adverbs are usually just adjectives with no ending, so they compare exactly the same way, with no -ly to worry about:

Er fährt schneller als ich. - He drives faster than me.

Heute geht es mir besser. - I am feeling better today.

Wir müssen öfter reden. - We need to talk more often.

English has to choose between more quickly and faster and argue about which is correct. German has one form, schneller, and it does both jobs.

The umlaut that sneaks in

A group of short, common adjectives with a, o or u take an umlaut in the comparative and the superlative:

This is the same vowel change English once had and mostly lost: old, elder, eldest is the German pattern, fossilised in one English word. There is no rule that predicts it fully. klar, laut, froh and voll have the right shape and take no umlaut at all: klarer, lauter. The honest advice is to learn the comparative along with the adjective, the same way you learn a noun's plural with the noun. The list above covers most of the ones you will need at this level.

The three irregulars

Three very common words break the pattern completely, just as English good, better, best does:

gern deserves a note, because it is how German says it likes and prefers things. Ich trinke gern Tee means I like drinking tea; Ich trinke lieber Kaffee means I would rather drink coffee; Ich trinke am liebsten Wasser means water is what I like best. English needs three different verbs for that; German uses one adverb in three degrees.

Two near-irregulars round out the list. hoch drops its c: höher, am höchsten. nahe gains a consonant in the superlative: näher, am nächsten. And bald (soon) borrows its forms from another word entirely: eher, am ehesten.

The superlative: two forms

This is the part English speakers find new. German has two superlatives, and the choice depends on where the adjective sits.

After a verb, use am ... -sten. This is the form for is the biggest, runs the fastest, likes best:

Er ist am größten. - He is the tallest.

Sie läuft am schnellsten. - She runs the fastest.

Am Abend ist es hier am schönsten. - It is nicest here in the evening.

In front of a noun, use the article plus -ste plus the usual adjective ending:

Das ist der größte Mann in der Stadt. - That is the tallest man in the town.

Das ist das beste Buch. - That is the best book.

Sie ist meine älteste Freundin. - She is my oldest friend.

An extra e appears before -sten when the adjective ends in -t, -d, -s, -ß, -sch or -z, simply because am ältsten cannot be said comfortably: am ältesten, am kürzesten, am schlechtesten. After a vowel sound the extra e is optional: am neuesten and am neusten are both correct. groß is the exception you will actually meet: am größten, not größesten. Present participles in -end do not add it either: am spannendsten.

Comparatives and superlatives take adjective endings too

A comparative or superlative in front of a noun is still an adjective, so it takes exactly the endings in the German adjective endings guide, bolted on after the -er or -st:

Wir brauchen ein größeres Haus. - We need a bigger house.

Mein älterer Bruder wohnt in Paris. - My older brother lives in Paris.

Er hat die besten Ideen. - He has the best ideas.

That produces some long words - größeres, ältesten, interessanteren - but each is just adjective plus comparison ending plus case ending, in that order. The two exceptions are mehr and weniger, which never take an ending: mehr Zeit, mehr Leute, weniger Geld.

One quirk worth knowing: without a real comparison, älter softens rather than sharpens. eine ältere Frau is usually understood as a middle-aged or elderly woman, and if anything younger than eine alte Frau. It works as a polite comparative, much like English an older gentleman.

Useful patterns

• immer plus comparative means more and more: Es wird immer besser (it keeps getting better), Die Tage werden immer länger.
• je ... desto is the more ... the more: Je früher, desto besser (the sooner the better).
• die meisten is most, as in most people: Die meisten Leute sind nett. Not am meisten, which only follows a verb.
• am besten doubles as advice: Am besten gehst du jetzt means you had best go now.

Mistakes English speakers make

• mehr plus an adjective. mehr interessant should be interessanter. German has no long-word exception.
• wie after a comparative. größer wie ich is regional at best; the standard is größer als ich.
• Superlative without am. Er ist größten is not German. After a verb it must be am größten; before a noun, der größte.
• Forgetting the umlaut. alter as a comparative is wrong, and also happens to be a different word, the noun Alter (age). The comparative is älter.
• Undeclined comparatives before a noun. ein größer Haus needs its neuter ending: ein größeres Haus.
• am meisten for most people. Before a noun it is die meisten.

What to do next

Learn the three irregulars as fixed sets: gut, besser, am besten; viel, mehr, am meisten; gern, lieber, am liebsten. Then practise the umlaut group aloud in threes, alt, älter, am ältesten, until the vowel change is automatic. Build a sentence with each form - Er ist älter als ich, Er ist am ältesten, der älteste Mann - and the two superlatives stop competing. The German course gives you all of these in context, and the German cases are worth a revisit if the endings on der größte and dem größten still feel like a guess.