COMPARATIVES AND

SUPERLATIVES
USAGE
● To compare or show the relationships between things
○ A “comparative” is a word that compares two things
■ Eg. Your house is bigger than my house.
■ Comparatives show three levels of expression: inferiority, equality and
superiority
○ A “superlative” is one that shows extremes
■ Eg. Sid parle le plus dans la classe.
■ Superlatives show two levels of expression: inferiority and superiority
Formation - comparative (regular)
● To form the comparative levels of expressions shown before, you follow the following format
(the noun or verb goes in between):
○ Inferiority: moins...que (less than)
○ Equality: aussi...que (as...as) / autant...que (as much/as many as)
○ Superiority: plus…que (more than)
● The above phrases can also be used as adverbs, where they come after the preceding verb
○ J’ai mangé aussi que Jacques.
● When the word following is a noun or number, you use de instead of que
○ I have more than three dogs. // I like India more than the UK.
Formation - superlative (regular)
● To show the superlative levels of expression, use the following phrases:
○ Inferiority: Le/La/Les moins… (the least...)
■ Louis parle le moins.
○ Superiority: Le/La/Les plus… (the most...)
■ Elles sont les plus bavardes élèves.

● You can use the preposition de after the phrase to put your superlative
into context
○ Louis speaks the least in school.
Irregulars in comparative and superlative
● Bon (good)
○ Just like you can’t say “gooder than” in English, in french you use meilleur for the
comparative and superior superlative phrases
○ For the inferior superlative, you use the phrase moins bon.
● Bien (well)
○ Similar to bon, bien the phrase mieux when speaking about comparatives and superior
superlatives, and the phrase moins bien for inferior superlatives
● Mauvais (bad)
○ Mauvais uses plus mauvais...que in the superior comparative and le mauvais for the
superior superlative (since you can’t say something is “less worse”)
Nominalisation
usage
● Nominalisation - turning a verb or adjective into a noun
● Allows us to transform verbs and adjectives in order to express different
things with the same word or to highlight the phrase.
○ Eg. La fille est très gentille. La gentillesse de la fille me rend heureux.

● We can nominalise both verbs and adjectives

○ The usual suffixes are -eur/-euse, -(a)teur/-(a)trice and -ant/ante. There is more
variation with the associated action nouns suffixes, including -ement, -ation, -age and the
lack of suffix.
○ Examples: Chanter -> Chanteur -> Chant, Courir -> Coureur -> Course, Dessiner ->
Dessinateur -> Dessin, Former -> Formateur -> Formation, Vendre -> Vendeur -> Vente
Voix Passif
L’Usage
The action of the verb is performed on the subject by an agent. The
agent is usually introduced by the prepositions par or de. It has a
slightly literary ring in French and is used much less frequently
than the active voice. To focus on an action without identifying the
performer. To put more emphasis on the person or thing performing
the action.

La voiture est lavée.

The car is (being) washed.

Les assiettes ont été cassées par le chien.

The plates were broken by the dog.

Toutes les chemises ont été vendues.

All of the shirts were sold.
L’Explanation
Jean mange une pomme Jean- Sujet

Mange- Verb

Une Pomme- C.O.D

Maintenant en voix active, nous changeons de sujet avec le

COD avec le structure de COD + (être + participe passé) + par
+ Sujet

Une pomme est mangé par Jean