Comparison — plus moins aussi

In one line

Three words — plus moins aussi — go in front of the adjective, and que attaches the second half. The same structure works for adverbs, verbs and nouns with small adjustments.

The forms on this page

The table

This is simpler than English, and worth noticing. English has two ways of forming a comparative — the -er suffix (taller, bigger) and the word more (more expensive, more interesting) — with a fuzzy boundary that even native speakers argue about. French has one: plus. plus grand, plus cher, plus intéressant. There is no French -er, and there is no plus grander to worry about.

The same three relations, for three other things

Two traps in that table: with a noun you must add de — plus de livres. And equality with a noun or a verb is not aussi but autant.

Equality — two different words

English uses "as … as" for all three — as fast as, as much time as, as much as — so nothing warns you that French splits them. The split is easy to remember once named: aussi describes a quality, autant measures an amount.

What comes after que

If it is a pronoun, it takes the stressed form — not the subject form:

And que becomes qu' before a vowel: plus grand qu'elle

English is doing the same thing when it says "taller than me" rather than "than I" — the difference is that French has no formal alternative and never had the argument.

Intensifying a comparison

A comparison can be scaled up or down:

très plus grand is wrong. très goes only with a plain adjective: très grand. To intensify a comparison, use beaucoup.

English has the same restriction — "very taller" is not English either. beaucoup plus is "much more".

And note deux fois plus grand = "twice as tall", not "twice more". French counts the total; English says "as … as". trois fois plus cher is "three times as expensive".

plus and the s that is sometimes pronounced

That last one genuinely changes the meaning: J'en veux plus /plys/ means "I want more", while Je n'en veux plus /ply/ means "I don't want any more". In fast speech the ne disappears, and the pronunciation of plus becomes the only thing separating the two.

Examples

Common mistakes

Why que and not something else