2.4 Comparative & Superlative Constructions

2.4 Comparative & Superlative Constructions

English forms most comparatives by bolting a suffix onto the word — tall, taller, tallest. French almost never does this. It builds comparison analytically, placing a small adverb of degree in front of the adjective or adverb and marking the standard of comparison with que. Because there is no suffix to look for, CLEP Part A items can hide a comparison error anywhere in the frame: in the degree word, in the linking word, in the article, or in the pronoun at the end. Every one of those four slots is a documented distractor position.

Comparison also shows up constantly outside grammar items. Authentic Part C materials — product notices, tourist brochures, statistical summaries in a newspaper article — are saturated with superlatives (la plus grande centrale solaire d'Europe), and Section II narratives use comparison to signal the answer to "according to the speaker, which option is preferable?" questions. Controlling the structure pays across all three sections.

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1. The Three Degrees of Comparison

The comparative frame is identical for adjectives and adverbs:

Three structural points the exam tests directly:

1. The adjective still agrees with its noun. The degree word is invariable; the adjective is not. Ces valises sont plus lourdes que prévu. A distractor offering plus lourd with a feminine plural subject is testing agreement, not comparison.
2. que is the only linking word. English than and as both map onto que. There is no French equivalent of the as ... as doubling: it is aussi grand que, never aussi grand aussi.
3. que elides before a vowel: *aussi bien **qu'*elle, *plus âgé **qu'*Antoine.

Comparing Quantities of Nouns

When what you compare is an amount of something, the degree word takes de and the noun follows bare — no article:

[!WARNING] aussi versus autant. Aussi modifies an adjective or adverb; autant modifies a verb or introduces a quantity of a noun. Il travaille autant que moi (he works as much as I do) is correct; Il travaille aussi que moi is not. Part B cloze blanks exploit this pair regularly because both translate as "as much."

Measuring the Gap

A numerical difference after a comparative is introduced by de:

• Elle est de deux ans plus âgée que son frère. / Elle a deux ans de plus que son frère.
• Ce modèle coûte cinquante euros de moins.
• Le TGV met une heure de moins que la voiture.

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2. The Suppletive Forms: meilleur, mieux, pire

Three high-frequency words refuse the plus frame in the superiority degree. This is the single most productive source of CLEP comparison distractors, because English speakers routinely reach for the wrong member of the pair.

The decision rule is grammatical, not semantic. Ask what the word modifies:

• Modifying a noun → adjective → meilleur, and it agrees: une meilleure solution, de meilleurs résultats.
• Modifying a verb → adverb → mieux, invariable: Elle chante mieux que moi. Ça va mieux.

Compare directly:

• Ce vin est meilleur que l'autre. (modifies vin, a noun → adjective)
• Ce vin se marie mieux avec le poisson. (modifies se marie, a verb → adverb)
• C'est le meilleur restaurant du quartier. (noun)
• C'est ici qu'on mange le mieux. (verb)

[!NOTE] bon and bien behave normally in the inferiority and equality degrees. The suppletion applies only to superiority. Moins bon que, aussi bon que, moins bien que, and aussi bien que are all perfectly regular — there is no moins meilleur.

plus mauvais versus pire: both are accepted for concrete comparisons (un résultat plus mauvais / pire), but pire dominates when the judgement is abstract or moral (Le remède est pire que le mal). Moindre similarly replaces plus petit only for abstract quantities: sans la moindre hésitation (without the slightest hesitation), never for physical size.

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3. The Superlative: Article + Comparative + de

The superlative is simply the comparative preceded by a definite article that agrees with the noun:

le / la / les + plus (or moins) + adjective

• C'est la plus belle vue de la région.
• Ce sont les moins chers du magasin.
• Voici le plus grand défi de sa carrière.

The Placement Rule

Where the article goes depends on whether the adjective normally precedes or follows the noun (the BANGS distinction from section 2.2):

The repeated article in the post-nominal pattern is obligatory and is a favourite omission distractor: le film le plus célèbre is correct; le film plus célèbre is not.

The Complement Takes de

The domain of a superlative — English "in" or "of" — is always de in French, never dans:

• la plus grande ville de France (the largest city in France)
• le meilleur joueur de l'équipe (the best player on the team)
• l'exercice le plus difficile du livre (with the normal contraction de + le = du)

[!IMPORTANT] dans after a superlative is always wrong on this exam. La plus haute montagne dans le monde is an English calque; the French is la plus haute montagne du monde. Part A items test this specific substitution.

Superlative of Adverbs

Adverbs have no gender or number, so the superlative article is frozen as le:

• C'est elle qui court le plus vite.
• Ils ont réagi le moins rapidement de tous.
• C'est ainsi qu'on apprend le mieux.

The Subjunctive After a Superlative

A relative clause modifying a superlative — or the absolute expressions le seul, le premier, le dernier — normally takes the subjunctive, because the claim is an evaluation rather than a verified fact:

• C'est le meilleur film que j'aie jamais vu.
• C'est la seule personne qui puisse nous aider.

This ties section 2.4 directly to Chapter 8: a Part A stem containing le plus … que is a live subjunctive trigger, and the indicative option is the trap.

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4. Pronoun and Agreement Traps

Three recurring distractor patterns account for most missed comparison items:

Trap 1 — Subject pronoun after que. The standard of comparison is a disjunctive (tonic) pronoun: moi, toi, lui, elle, nous, vous, eux, elles.

• Correct: Il est plus rapide que moi. / Nous sommes moins pressés qu'eux.
• Wrong: plus rapide que je, moins pressés qu'ils.

Trap 2 — Forgetting agreement on meilleur. It is an adjective and inflects fully: meilleur, meilleure, meilleurs, meilleures. A feminine noun with meilleur is an error; mieux never agrees with anything.

Trap 3 — The expletive ne in a formal comparison. In elevated written French an untranslated ne may appear before the verb of the second term: Le voyage a été plus long qu'on ne le pensait. It carries no negative meaning. Reading it as a negation reverses the sense of the sentence — a genuine Part C comprehension risk, not merely a grammar point.

Trap 4 — plus ... plus correlative comparison. French drops the English "the": Plus on étudie, plus on progresse (the more you study, the more you progress). Also moins … moins, and the mixed plus … moins. A distractor inserting le before plus is an English calque.