I comparativi irregolari

Irregular comparative forms

As in English, there are a few irregular adjectives and adverbs in the comparative form.

Adjectives Irregular comparative adjectives
buono good migliore better
cattivo/brutto bad peggiore worse
grande big maggiore bigger / older
piccolo small minore smaller / younger
Adverbs Irregular comparative adverbs
bene well meglio better
male badly / poorly peggio worse

You can also use the forms più + adjective, as in più buonopiù grande, etc. However, there are some nuances:

  • maggiore and minore are most often used to talk about siblings, as in il mio fratello maggiore, la mia sorella minore.
  • più grande and più piccolo are used to talk about size, as in questa borsa è più piccola di quella.
  • più buono and più cattivo usually refer to a moral quality, as in Gianni è più buono di te and food, as in la pizza margherita è più buona della pizza alla diavola.

You cannot say più bene or più male. Only the irregular forms are acceptable.

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Spunti: Italiano elementare 2 Copyright © 2018 by Daniel Leisawitz and Daniela Viale is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.

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