German Komparativ and Superlativ¶

Q: How do you form the Komparativ and Superlativ in German?

Usually by a rule. The Komparativ gets the ending -er (schnell → schneller). The Superlativ gets am and the ending -sten (am schnellsten). After -t, -d, -s, -ß, -x, -z and -sch, the Superlativ gets an extra -e- (am ältesten), because the word is hard to pronounce without it.

Q: Which adjectives get an umlaut?

Some short adjectives with a, o or u: alt → älter, jung → jünger, groß → größer, kalt, warm, lang, kurz, stark, klug, arm. No rule tells you exactly which adjectives get an umlaut. For example, klar and froh have no umlaut. So you must learn these adjectives.

Q: Which comparison forms are irregular?

Five common words: gut → besser → am besten, viel → mehr → am meisten, gern → lieber → am liebsten, hoch → höher → am höchsten, nah → näher → am nächsten. Gut, viel and gern change their stem. Hoch and nah change their consonants.

Q: When do you use am besten, and when der beste?

The form with am comes after the verb: Lukas spielt am besten. Before a noun, the Superlativ takes the usual adjective endings: der beste Spieler, mit dem besten Spieler. Both forms have the same stem (best-), so learn the form with am first.

A German adjective has three degrees of comparison. The Positiv (positive degree) is the base form: schnell. The Komparativ (comparative) shows that one thing has more of a quality than another: schneller. The Superlativ (superlative) shows that a thing has the most of a quality: am schnellsten.

The rule¶

Most adjectives follow a rule. The Komparativ gets the ending -er. The Superlativ gets am and the ending -sten:

Positiv	Komparativ	Superlativ
schnell	schneller	am schnellsten
klein	kleiner	am kleinsten
billig	billiger	am billigsten

After the Komparativ, use als: Der Zug ist schneller als der Bus. If two things have the same quality, use the Positiv with so … wie: Der Bus ist so langsam wie die Straßenbahn.

If the adjective ends in -t, -d, -s, -ß, -x, -z or -sch, the Superlativ gets an extra -e-: am ältesten, am kürzesten. Without this vowel, the word is hard to pronounce. There are exceptions. The most common one is groß: am größten.

The form with am comes after the verb: Der Zug ist am schnellsten. Before a noun, the Superlativ takes the usual adjective endings: der schnellste Zug, mit dem schnellsten Zug. Both forms have the same stem. So learn the form with am first. The endings before a noun are explained in Adjective endings.

Umlaut¶

Some short adjectives with a, o or u get an umlaut in the Komparativ and Superlativ: alt → älter → am ältesten, jung → jünger → am jüngsten. No rule tells you exactly which adjectives get an umlaut. For example, klar and froh have no umlaut: klarer, froher. So you must learn the adjectives with an umlaut. There are only a few, and almost all of them are very common.

Irregular forms¶

Five common words don't follow the rule:

gut, viel and gern get a different stem: besser, mehr, lieber.
hoch loses its c in the Komparativ: höher. The Superlativ keeps the c: am höchsten. Before a noun, the Positiv loses the c too: ein hoher Berg.
nah gets a ch in the Superlativ: am nächsten.

The bot practices only the words with an umlaut and the irregular forms. The forms that follow the rule are easy to build, so you don't need to learn them separately.

Table of forms¶

Positiv	Komparativ	Superlativ	English
alt	älter	am ältesten	old
arm	ärmer	am ärmsten	poor
gern	lieber	am liebsten	gladly
groß	größer	am größten	big
gut	besser	am besten	good, well
hoch	höher	am höchsten	high
jung	jünger	am jüngsten	young
kalt	kälter	am kältesten	cold
klug	klüger	am klügsten	clever
kurz	kürzer	am kürzesten	short
lang	länger	am längsten	long
nah	näher	am nächsten	near
stark	stärker	am stärksten	strong
viel	mehr	am meisten	much, many
warm	wärmer	am wärmsten	warm

Exercises¶

You can find more exercises on this topic in the Telegram bot @ImmerWiederholenBot. The bot saves your progress and reminds you when it's time to review.