Comparing Things in Arabic: Bigger, Better, Best
How Arabic builds comparatives and superlatives from a single pattern, with the key examples and the irregular forms worth memorising.
English has "-er" and "-est" endings, or "more" and "most". Arabic has a single, elegant pattern that handles both, known as af'al.
The pattern: أفعل
To form a comparative, take the three root letters and apply the pattern أَفْعَل (af'al):
- كبير (kabir, big) → أكبر (akbar, bigger)
- صغير (saghir, small) → أصغر (asghar, smaller)
- جميل (jamil, beautiful) → أجمل (ajmal, more beautiful)
- سهل (sahl, easy) → أسهل (ashal, easier)
- طويل (tawil, tall or long) → أطول (atwal, taller or longer)
Saying "than"
The word for "than" is من (min, literally "from"):
- هذا البيت أكبر من ذلك البيت — hadha al-bayt akbar min dhalika al-bayt — This house is bigger than that house.
- هي أطول مني — hiya atwal minni — She is taller than me.
Irregular forms
A few very common adjectives have irregular comparatives:
- جيد / حسن (jayyid / hasan, good) → أحسن (ahsan) or أفضل (afdal), better
- كثير (kathir, much or many) → أكثر (akthar, more)
- قليل (qalil, little or few) → أقل (aqall, less)
- سيئ (sayyi', bad) → أسوأ (aswa', worse)
Superlatives
There are two ways to say "the biggest":
- Add ال to the comparative: هو الأكبر (huwa al-akbar), "he is the biggest".
- Use the comparative followed by an indefinite singular noun: أكبر مدينة (akbar madina), "the biggest city", literally "biggest of city".
Agreement
The comparative form doesn't change for gender in the "than" construction, so أكبر works for both masculine and feminine. In the superlative with ال, the feminine form is الكبرى (al-kubra), used in phrases like "the greatest".
A famous example
The phrase الله أكبر (Allahu akbar), often translated "God is greatest", is a comparative form of كبير.
Colours and defects don't work this way
Adjectives that follow the pattern of colours (like أحمر) don't form comparatives using أفعل directly. For those, speakers use أكثر احمراراً, "more red".
Practice
- Make comparatives of ten adjectives you know.
- Compare two places or people out loud using من.
- Learn the four irregular forms above.
- Look up any adjective to see its comparative in a dictionary.
Look up adjectives and comparatives with English Arabic Dictionary →
English Arabic Dictionary
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