Latin Comparative Adjectives: Ultimate Guide for Students

Comparison may be the thief of joy, but it is also a constant in everyday life. Latin comparative adjectives are important if you want to understand how ancient Romans evaluated the world around them!

Comparative adjectives, just as the name suggests, allow us to make comparisons between people, places, and things.

If you want to say that someone is taller than someone else, you use a comparative adjective. If you want to insist that one flower is more beautiful than another, this also calls for a comparative adjective.

Luckily, Latin comparatives are pretty straightforward. My students usually consider them a nice break from intense verbal forms!

This post may contain affiliate links and I may receive a commission, at no extra cost to you, if you make a purchase through a link. See my disclosures for more details.

What is a comparative adjective?

In Latin, just like in English, adjectives have three degrees. These are forms that establish the degree of intensity of a quality. In other words, is the house 1) big, 2) bigger, or 3) biggest?

The following chart shows the three degrees of several common adjectives.

Positive	Comparative	Superlative
fortis, forte = brave	fortior, fortius = braver	fortissimus, a, um = bravest
longus, a, um = long	longior, longius = longer	longissimus, a, um = longest
audāx (gen. audācis) = bold	audācior, audācius = bolder	audācissimus, a, um = boldest

Can you see the pattern here? Positive adjectives state that someone or something has a certain quality (brave, bold, etc.). This is the “dictionary form” of the adjective, the form which – logically – you will find in good Latin dictionaries.

Comparatives express that a person or thing has more of a certain quality. In English, we usually form comparatives by adding –er to the end of a positive adjective (braver, longer, etc.). It is also possible to add more in front of the adjective (more powerful, more beautiful, etc.).

Finally, superlatives convey that a person or thing has the highest possible degree of a certain quality (bravest, longest, most powerful, etc.).

Textbooks usually present comparatives and superlatives together, which can be helpful, but right now my goal is different. I want you to focus only on comparative adjectives and their quirks and usages.

After that, you can go read all about Latin superlatives!

How to form Latin comparative adjectives

Every Latin comparative adjective has two forms in the nominative singular.

EXAMPLE: fortior, fortius (can also be abbreviated to fortior, ius) – ‘braver, stronger’

The first form, fortior, is the nominative singular masculine AND feminine. The second form, fortius, is the nominative singular neuter.

We will discuss how to decline comparatives in the next section, but for now I just want you to remember that masculine and feminine comparative forms are identical.

So, how do you get from the positive degree – or the dictionary form – of an adjective to its comparative?

To form a comparative in Latin, follow two (relatively) simple steps:

1. Find the adjective’s base from its positive degree.
2. Add –ior (masculine / feminine) or –ius (neuter).

Step #1 is the most complicated. The way that you find an adjective’s base (sometimes called its stem) depends on what declension it belongs to in the positive degree.

I wrote an entire post about finding a Latin adjective’s base, so you can consult that for more details. But here are the highlights!

If you are dealing with a 2-1-2 adjective, simply remove the –us from the nominative singular masculine to find the base.

NOTE: There are some 2-1-2 adjectives that have a nominative singular masculine ending in –er in the positive degree. When this happens, the safest way to find the stem is to remove the –a from the feminine singular. Pulcher, pulchra, pulchrum below provides an example.

The following chart lists the positive degree of each adjective first and then the positive base before moving on to the masculine/feminine comparative and the neuter comparative.

Positive Degree	Positive Base	M/F Comp.	Neuter Comp.
longus, a, um ‘long’	long-	longior	longius
saevus, a, um ‘fierce’	saev-	saevior	saevius
laetus, a, um ‘joyful’	laet-	laetior	laetius
certus, a, um ‘sure’	cert-	certior	certius
pulcher, pulchra, pulchrum ‘pretty’	pulchr-	pulchrior	pulchrius

The resulting comparatives are translated into English as “longer”, “fiercer”, “more joyful”, “surer”, and “prettier”, respectively.

For most third-declension adjectives, to find the base you remove the –is from the masculine nominative singular of the positive form. But some adjectives may have a masculine nominative singular ending in –er, in which case you should remove –is from the feminine nominative singular.

Most importantly, there is a group of third-declension adjectives that only have one form in the nominative singular. These adjectives will be given along with their genitive singular; remove –is from the genitive singular to get the base.

👉 Confused? Don’t forget to read this post about adjective bases!

Time for another chart! This time all of the adjectives are third-declension in the positive degree.

Positive Degree	Positive Base	M/F Comp.	Neuter Comp.
gravis, e ‘serious, heavy’	grav-	gravior	gravius
trīstis, e ‘sad’	trīst-	trīstior	trīstius
fēlīx (gen. fēlīcis) ‘lucky’	fēlīc-	fēlīcior	fēlīcius
potēns (gen. potentis) ‘powerful’	potent-	potentior	potentius
ācer, ācris, ācre ‘sharp’	ācr-	ācrior	ācrius

The comparative forms translate to “more serious/heavier”, “sadder”, “luckier”, “more powerful”, and “sharper”, respectively.

Now it’s your turn! Find the comparative forms of each of the following adjectives and then check your answers.

How to decline Latin comparative adjectives

You now know how to create Latin comparative adjectives – but only in the nominative singular. What if you want to use the plural or use one of the other Latin cases? For this, you need to be able to decline Latin comparatives.

This means that all comparative adjectives have 3rd-declension case endings. But there is a slight twist: these are 3rd-declension consonant-stem endings. You may – or may not! – remember that 3rd-declension adjectives typically use i-stem endings. Comparative adjectives break that pattern.

So, how do you decline a comparative adjective? There are two steps:

1. Find the base of the comparative.
2. Add 3rd-declension consonant-stem endings.

IMPORTANT: The base of the comparative is DIFFERENT from the base of the positive.

The base of a comparative adjective is always the masculine/feminine singular nominative form with a lengthened O.

Positive	Positive Base	Comparative	Comparative Base
longus, a, um	long-	longior, longius	longiōr-
pulcher, pulchra, pulchrum	pulchr-	pulchrior, pulchrius	pulchriōr-
trīstis, e	trīst-	trīstior, trīstius	trīstiōr-
fēlīx (gen. fēlīcis)	fēlīc-	fēlīcior, fēlīcius	fēlīciōr-
potēns (gen. potentis)	potent-	potentior, potentius	potentiōr-

Almost all declined forms of comparative adjectives will feature this base, so whenever you see –iōr-, your “comparative” spider senses should start tingling.

The exception is the neuter nominative singular, which we have already seen ends in –ius and does NOT have –iōr-. Since the accusative in the neuter is always identical to the nominative, the neuter accusative singular will also end in –ius.

See the comparative fēlīcior, fēlīcius “luckier” fully declined below. An interpunct (·) marks where the base ends and the ending begins.

Case & Number	Masc./Fem.	Neut.
Nom Sing	fēlīcior	fēlīcius
Gen Sing	fēlīciōr·is	fēlīciōr·is
Dat Sing	fēlīciōr·ī	fēlīciōr·ī
Acc Sing	fēlīciōr·em	fēlīcius
Abl Sing	fēlīciōr·e	fēlīciōr·e
Nom Pl	fēlīciōr·ēs	fēlīciōr·a
Gen Pl	fēlīciōr·um	fēlīciōr·um
Dat Pl	fēlīciōr·ibus	fēlīciōr·ibus
Acc Pl	fēlīciōr·ēs	fēlīciōr·a
Abl Pl	fēlīciōr·ibus	fēlīciōr·ibus

That’s all there is to it. Find the base, add 3rd-declension consonant-stem endings, and boom! you have declined your comparative adjective.

Now here comes the fun part . . . seeing these comparatives in action!

👉 Do you need a refresher on Latin case endings? My ultimate guide will help!

Examples of Latin Comparatives in Action

So far I have explained that Latin comparatives should be translated as “________er” or “more _________”. Now it’s time to go a bit deeper into the sentence patterns that typically feature comparatives.

More X Than Y

If I say that I am taller, you may quite naturally ask: “Taller than who?” In English we link the two nouns being compared with the word “than”.

In Latin, there are two ways to express this concept. First we have the Latin word quam, which – among other things – means “than”.

The good thing about this construction is that it works exactly as in English!

Lupī sunt ferōciōrēs quam canēs. = Wolves are fiercer than dogs.

Putō tē esse altiōrem quam matrem. = I think that you are taller than (your) mother.

Notice that the nouns being compared are in the same case. Lupī is in the nominative case (since it is the subject of the sentence), so canēs is also in the nominative.

Tē, on the other hand, is in the accusative case (since it is the subject of an indirect statement). Mātrem is thus also in the accusative, since “your mother” is being compared to “you”.

So far so good. But here’s where Latin complicates things a bit: because we can use a construction called the ablative of comparison INSTEAD of quam + nominative or accusative.

Consider the following two sentences.

Lupī sunt ferōciōrēs quam canēs. = Wolves are fiercer than dogs.

Lupī sunt ferōciōrēs canibus. = Wolves are fiercer than dogs.

In the second version of the sentence, quam canēs has been replaced by the ablative canibus. The ablative, combined with the preceding comparative ferōciōrēs, conveys the idea of comparison. There is no need for quam.

We can rearrange the other example sentence in the same way.

Putō tē esse altiōrem quam matrem. = I think that you are taller than (your) mother.

Putō tē esse altiōrem matre. = I think that you are taller than (your) mother.

If you are reading Latin and you see a comparative followed by an ablative, the ablative of comparison should immediately pop into your mind!

Now sometimes the ablative of comparison would be unclear, and in such situations it is best to use the construction quam. For this reason, quam is ALWAYS used if the noun being compared is in a case other than the nominative or the accusative.

The farmer gives prettier roses to the horse than the sailor.

What does this sentence mean? Is the farmer giving prettier roses to the horse than the sailor gives? Or is the farmer giving roses to both the horse and the sailor, and the sailor gets uglier roses?

In Latin, we would definitely want to use quam to be clear about the situation.

#1. Agricola pulchriōrēs rosās equō dat quam nauta. = The farmer gives prettier roses to the horse than the sailor (does).

#2. Agricola pulchriōrēs rosās equō dat quam nautae. = The farmer gives prettier roses to the horse than to the sailor.

In scenario #1, nauta is in the nominative case. The sailor is another nominative subject and is being compared to the farmer. The sailor is also giving the horse flowers; they just aren’t as pretty as the farmer’s flowers.

In scenario #2, on the other hand, nautae is in the dative case. So the sailor is another indirect object; the sailor is receiving roses just like the dog is.

Rather / Quite / Too X

Sometimes the Latin comparative is used to express intensity without the presence of an explicit comparison.

Lingua Latīna est difficilior. = The Latin language is rather difficult / quite difficult / too difficult.

There is no real comparison here. We aren’t being told, say, that Latin is more difficult than English. Instead, the idea is that Latin is more difficult than we expect, or than the norm for languages, or than it ought to be.

In other words, Latin is rather difficult, or perhaps quite difficult or even too difficult.

If you see a comparative floating around without quam or an ablative of comparison, then you can try translating it in this way.

Latin Comparatives with Magis

A small group of Latin adjectives has comparatives formed with the adverb magis “more”. Instead of adding –ior or –ius to the adjective’s base, we add magis in front of the positive degree of the adjective.

A comparative with magis appears when an adjective’s positive degree ends in –eus, –ius, or -uus.

Positive	Comparative
idōneus, a, um = suitable	magis idōneus, a, um = more suitable
arduus, a, um = steep	magis arduus, a, um = steeper
necessārius, a, um = necessary	magis necessārius, a, um = more necessary

Why does this happen? Because the adjective’s base ends in a vowel, and it would be awkward to add –ior onto it. For instance, the base of idōneus is idōne-; *idōneior would be an extremely odd form.

NOTE: Double Us do not count if the first U is consonantal, e.g. in antīquus, a, um. QU together makes a kw sound that can be followed by any vowel.

I should caution you, however, that the rules around the use of magis are fuzzy. Some adjectives don’t seem to form comparatives in Latin at all when we might expect to see comparatives with magis.

And some adjectives can take magis where we might not expect it. For instance, both ūtilior and magis ūtilis “more useful” are possible.

The most important thing is to be able to recognize magis + adjective as a comparative form if you see it.

Irregular Latin Comparatives

Some Latin adjectives have highly irregular and unpredictable comparative forms. This is just like in English, where “good” gives us “better” and “bad” gives us “worse”.

Almost all irregular Latin comparatives are extremely common. You can find most of their positive forms among the 1000 most commonly used Latin words.

This means that they are important to memorize!

In the following chart, I have listed superlative forms as well as comparatives for your reference.

Positive	Comparative	Superlative
bonus, a, um = good	melior, melius = better	optimus, a, um = best
malus, a, um = bad	peior, peius = worse	pessimus, a, um = worst
parvus, a, um = small	minor, minus = smaller	minimus, a, um = smallest
magnus, a, um = big	maior, maius = bigger	maximus, a, um = biggest
multus, a, um = much, many	—, plūs = more	plūrimus, a, um = most
superus, a, um = above	superior, superius = higher	suprēmus, a, um = highest, last summus, a, um = highest, best

Although the comparative forms are irregular, they are declined in the same way as regular comparatives: as 3rd-declension adjectives. They are also used in the same way as other comparatives.

Fēlēs sunt minōrēs quam canēs. = Cats are smaller than dogs.

Dī meliōra ferant! = May the gods bring better things!

There is one exception: plūs, the comparative of multus, a, um.

Plūs, in the singular, is not actually an adjective at all. In fact, it is a neuter noun, and as such it cannot modify other nouns directly.

Say, for instance, you want to talk about finding “more water”. In English, we can jam “more” and “water” together and be done with it.

But in Latin, plūs is NOT an adjective, so we have to say “more of water”, as in a “larger quantity of water”. In other words, we have to put “water” into the genitive case to get plūs aquae.

This is what we call the partitive use of the genitive case.

However, plūs is only a noun in the singular. In the plural, it becomes a comparative adjective: plūrēs, plūra. No more need to worry about partitive genitives!

Contrast the following sentences.

Tibi plūs pecūniae dedī. = I gave you more (of) money.

Tibi plūrēs nummōs dedī. I gave you more coins.

In the first sentence, plūs is in the accusative because it is the direct object of dedī. Pecūniae is a partitive genitive..

In the second sentence, nummōs is in the accusative because it is the direct object of dedī. Plūrēs is an accusative adjective modifying nummōs.

Final Thoughts on Latin Comparatives

I hope that you now feel more comfortable with Latin comparative adjectives. This has been a long post, so let’s summarize the most important takeaways:

• Comparative adjectives have –ior in the masculine/feminine nominative singular and –ius in the neuter nominative singular.
• Comparative adjectives have 3rd-declension endings, and we see the base –iōr- in almost all of those endings.
• Comparatives often appear with quam or with the ablative of comparison.
• Some adjectives have irregular comparative forms that you simply have to memorize.

When it comes to memorizing irregular comparatives, English derivatives can be extremely helpful. For instance, melior gives us “ameliorate”, which means “make something better”. Maior and minor yield “major” and “minor”, respectively, while peior has the derivative “pejorative” (a bad name that makes you feel worse).

Now you know all about comparatives and you can say that something is better or taller than something else. But what if you want to say something is best or tallest of all? Don’t forget to take the next step and explore Latin superlatives!

YOU MAY ALSO LOVE

Latin Numbers & How To Use Them

Awesome Resources to Learn Latin

Best Apps For Learning Latin

Latin Verb Stems Made Easy