Comparing things is one of the first skills you need in any language. Is this restaurant better than that one? Who is the tallest in the family? Which phone costs less?
English builds many comparisons with the endings -er and -est: taller, tallest. Spanish almost never modifies the adjective itself. Instead, it places some elements in front: más alto (taller), el más alto (the tallest). Once you learn a handful of these formulas, you can compare anything.
In this guide we'll cover comparisons of superiority, inferiority, and equality, the four irregular comparatives, comparisons with numbers, and both kinds of superlatives.
Superiority: más... que
To say that something has more of a quality than something else, put más before the adjective and que after it.
Mi cocina es más pequeña que tu salón. (My kitchen is smaller than your living room.)
El tren es más rápido que el autobús. (The train is faster than the bus.)
The adjective still matches the gender and number of whatever it describes, exactly as it would outside a comparison.
Estas naranjas son más dulces que esas. (These oranges are sweeter than those.)
The same formula works with nouns. In that case, más means more in the sense of quantity.
Carlos tiene más camisas que su hermano. (Carlos has more shirts than his brother.)
It also works with verbs. When you compare actions, más que goes after the verb, with nothing in between.
Mi hija lee más que yo. (My daughter reads more than I do.)
Notice that after que we use subject pronouns: que yo, que tú, que él. Saying más que mí is a common English-speaker mistake, since people in English often say than me instead of than I.
Inferiority: menos... que
To express the opposite idea, swap más for menos. The structure is identical, and it works with adjectives, nouns, and verbs.
Este restaurante es menos caro que el otro. (This restaurant is less expensive than the other one.)
Hoy tengo menos energía que ayer. (Today I have less energy than yesterday.)
Nosotros salimos menos que nuestros amigos. (We go out less than our friends do.)
The four irregular comparatives
A small group of adjectives has its own comparative form, so they don't take más:
mejor - better
peor - worse
mayor - older
menor - younger
Esta película es mejor que la primera. (This movie is better than the first one.)
El tráfico está peor que ayer. (The traffic is worse than yesterday.)
Mi prima es mayor que yo. (My cousin is older than I am.)
Su hermano menor vive en Chicago. (Her younger brother lives in Chicago.)
These four don't change for gender, but they do have plural forms: mejores, peores, mayores, menores.
Mis hermanas son menores que yo. (My sisters are younger than I am.)
Two notes on this group. First, mayor and menor are mainly about age. For physical size, Spanish normally uses más grande and más pequeño: mi maleta es más grande que la tuya (my suitcase is bigger than yours). The dictionary of the Real Academia Española lists both uses in its entry for mayor, but in everyday speech the age meaning dominates.
Second, mejor and peor also serve as the comparatives of the adverbs bien and mal. So they cover both better as an adjective and better as an adverb.
Ella cocina mejor que yo. (She cooks better than I do.)
Equality with adjectives and adverbs: tan... como
To say that two things are equal in some quality, wrap the adjective or adverb between tan and como.
El documental es tan interesante como el libro. (The documentary is as interesting as the book.)
Llegamos tan tarde como ellos. (We arrived as late as they did.)
Keep tan for adjectives and adverbs only. If you want to equate quantities of a noun, or the intensity of two actions, you need tanto.
Equality with nouns and verbs: tanto... como
Tanto has two jobs, and they behave differently.
When it goes with a noun, it works as an adjective, so it takes that noun's gender and number: tanto, tanta, tantos, tantas.
No tengo tanta paciencia como mi madre. (I don't have as much patience as my mother.)
Este año hay tantos turistas como el año pasado. (This year there are as many tourists as last year.)
Compré tantas manzanas como tú. (I bought as many apples as you.)
If agreement rules feel shaky, our guides on why Spanish nouns are masculine or feminine and singular and plural forms in Spanish cover the basics.
When tanto goes with a verb, it works as an adverb, so it never changes form. In this pattern, nothing sits between tanto and como.
Mis abuelos viajan tanto como nosotros. (My grandparents travel as much as we do.)
Ya no llueve tanto como en abril. (It doesn't rain as much as it did in April anymore.)
Comparisons with numbers: más de, menos de
Here's a detail that trips up even advanced students. Before a number or an amount, Spanish uses de, not que.
La ciudad tiene más de dos millones de habitantes. (The city has more than two million inhabitants.)
La reparación costó menos de cien dólares. (The repair cost less than a hundred dollars.)
There is one twist in negative sentences. No... más que + number means only, while no... más de + number sets a maximum.
No gasté más que veinte dólares. (I only spent twenty dollars.)
No gasté más de veinte dólares. (I didn't spend more than twenty dollars.)
The first sentence states the exact amount. The second one says the amount didn't exceed twenty, but it could have been fifteen. The Real Academia Española's Diccionario panhispánico de dudas discusses this distinction in its entry for más.
The relative superlative: el más, el menos
A superlative singles out one member of a group as the extreme case: the tallest, the least expensive. Spanish builds it with the definite article plus más or menos.
Elena es la más trabajadora de la oficina. (Elena is the hardest-working person in the office.)
Este es el barrio menos ruidoso de la ciudad. (This is the least noisy neighborhood in the city.)
The article agrees with the noun: el, la, los, or las.
Estos zapatos son los más cómodos que tengo. (These shoes are the most comfortable ones I have.)
Notice the preposition. Where English says in (the tallest in her class), Spanish typically says de. Using en is also acceptable here, so el mejor restaurante de mi barrio and el mejor restaurante en mi barrio are both fine, but de is the safer default.
The irregular comparatives form superlatives the same way: el mejor, el peor, el mayor, el menor.
Es la mejor panadería del barrio. (It's the best bakery in the neighborhood.)
Fue el peor verano de mi vida. (It was the worst summer of my life.)
Soy el menor de cuatro hermanos. (I'm the youngest of four siblings.)
The absolute superlative: -ísimo
Spanish has a second superlative that doesn't compare anything. It simply pushes a quality to its maximum, like really or extremely in English. To form it, drop the final vowel of the adjective (if there is one) and add -ísimo, -ísima, -ísimos, or -ísimas.
El examen fue dificilísimo. (The exam was extremely hard.)
Estas empanadas están buenísimas. (These empanadas are really good.)
A few spelling adjustments keep the pronunciation intact: C becomes QU (rico becomes riquísimo), G becomes GU (largo becomes larguísimo).
The ending also attaches to some adverbs, most famously mucho.
Te lo agradezco muchísimo. (I really appreciate it.)
An adjective in -ísimo already means very, so don't stack intensifiers on top of it. Muy cansadísimo is redundant; say cansadísimo or muy cansado.
Five mistakes to avoid
Here are the errors we correct most often in class:
Más mejor. Mejor is already a comparative, so it never takes más. The same goes for peor, mayor, and menor.
Más que dos with numbers. Before a quantity, it's más de dos.
Forgetting agreement with tanto + noun: tanta agua, tantos primos, tantas sillas.
Using tan with a noun. Tan dinero is impossible; it has to be tanto dinero.
Object pronouns after que. It's más alto que yo, never más alto que mí.
Putting it all together
Try reading this short description and identifying each structure:
Mi ciudad es más pequeña que Madrid, pero es la más bonita de la región. Tiene menos museos que la capital, aunque son interesantísimos. Además, la gente aquí no trabaja tanto como en Madrid, y vive tan bien como cualquier madrileño. (My city is smaller than Madrid, but it's the prettiest in the region. It has fewer museums than the capital, although they are extremely interesting. Also, people here don't work as much as in Madrid, and they live as well as any Madrid resident.)
That one paragraph uses superiority, a relative superlative, inferiority, an absolute superlative, and both equality patterns. Comparisons show up everywhere in real Spanish, so the formulas pay off quickly. Learn más... que, menos... que, and tan/tanto... como, memorize the four irregulars, and remember de before numbers and after superlatives. That's the whole system.