Comparative
Usage
The comparative🇮🇸 miðstig form of an adjective in Icelandic is, as the name suggests, used in comparisons along with the conjunction en “than”:
Ég er sterkari en þú.
Kvikmyndin er skemmtilegri en bókin.
Hnífurinn er stærri en gaffallinn.
Mín peysa er grænni en þín.
The comparative only exists in the weak inflection. But in fact, the inflection of comparative adjectives is even simpler than the standard weak inflection.
Indeclinable adjectives are used with the adverb meira instead of an ending:
Íslenska er meira spennandi en enska!
Meira is only used with adjectives that are not inflected at all, such as hissa, sammála, hugsi and all adjectives that end in -andi, such as spennandi and þreytandi. For all other adjectives, the comparative inflection is used, regardless of how long the adjective is.
Units and measurements in comparisons
In comparisons, it’s often helpful to specify by how much something is for example bigger, stronger or faster than something else. This is particularly obvious with units of measurement or time. This information is given in the dative case:
Pabbi er þremur sentimetrum hærri en mamma.
Tveimur dögum seinna fórum við heim.
Certain adverbs such as mikið can also be used in this way, and are therefore also in the dative:
Þessi nýja bók er miklu skemmtilegri en sú gamla.
því … því
When linking together multiple phrases that contain comparatives, Icelandic uses því (in the same way English uses “the”). For example:
Því ódýrara, því betra.
Því meira sem hann borðaði, því feitari varð hann.
Note that because því is an adverb in this context, it causes inversion of the subject and the verb if present.
Formation
The endings in the comparative are greatly simplified compared to the positive and superlative. 😅
Regardless which set of rules the adjective follows below to form its comparative, the final vowel is always -i in all cases for the masculine and feminine singular, and all genders in the plural. In the neuter singular, the final vowel is -a in all cases:
- sterkari
- fínni
- blárri
- yngri
| Singular | Plural | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Masculine | Feminine | Neuter | Masculine | Feminine | Neuter | |
| Nom. | sterkari | sterkara | sterkari | |||
| Acc. | ||||||
| Dat. | ||||||
| Gen. | ||||||
| Singular | Plural | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Masculine | Feminine | Neuter | Masculine | Feminine | Neuter | |
| Nom. | fínni | fínna | fínni | |||
| Acc. | ||||||
| Dat. | ||||||
| Gen. | ||||||
| Singular | Plural | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Masculine | Feminine | Neuter | Masculine | Feminine | Neuter | |
| Nom. | blárri | blárra | blárri | |||
| Acc. | ||||||
| Dat. | ||||||
| Gen. | ||||||
| Singular | Plural | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Masculine | Feminine | Neuter | Masculine | Feminine | Neuter | |
| Nom. | yngri | yngra | yngri | |||
| Acc. | ||||||
| Dat. | ||||||
| Gen. | ||||||
-ari
The majority of adjectives form their comparative with the suffix -ari (-ara in the neuter singular), regardless of which pattern they follow in the positive.
| Masc. and fem. singular Plural (all genders) | Neuter singular | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| sterkur þykkur auðveldur | → | sterkari þykkari auðveldari | sterkara þykkara auðveldara |
| dýr laus | dýrari lausari | dýrara lausara | |
| opinn hávaxinn | opnari hávaxnari | opnara hávaxnara | |
-ll/nn
Adjectives ending in -ll and -nn both follow a similar pattern:
| Masc. and fem. singular Plural (all genders) | Neuter singular | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| háll heill vinsæll | → | hálli heilli vinsælli | hálla heilla vinsælla |
| brúnn fínn grænn | brúnni fínni grænni | brúnna fínna grænna | |
-legur and -ugur
All adjectives ending in -legur and -ugur follow this pattern:
| Masc. and fem. singular Plural (all genders) | Neuter singular | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| skemmtilegur leiðinlegur asnalegur | → | skemmtilegri leiðinlegri asnalegri | skemmtilegra leiðinlegra asnalegra |
| auðugur öflugur | auðugri öflugri | auðugra öflugra | |
-rr-
A small group of adjectives with these properties follow a slightly different pattern:
- 1️⃣ Single-syllable (or formed from single-syllable adjectives e.g. gegn-sær),
- ®️ Ending in -r,
- 🔺 With an accented vowel or æ in their stem.
All of the adjectives in this group are ones that lose their -r ending in the feminine and neuter in the positive (e.g. blár – blá – blátt but not dýr – dýr – dýrt).
| Masc. and fem. singular Plural (all genders) | Neuter singular | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| blár grár mjór trúr nýr hlýr gegnsær | → | blárri grárri mjórri trúrri nýrri hlýrri gegnsærri | blárra grárra mjórra trúrra nýrra hlýrra gegnsærra |
Vowel changes and irregular comparatives
Some adjectives such as langur and ungur get the I-shift in their comparative forms, becoming lengri and yngri respectively. Others are completely irregular, such as góður, whose comparative form is betri.
As these variations also affect the superlative, they are dealt with together in Irregular comparatives and superlatives.