Bengali Adjectives and Comparison: Bigger, Better, Most

Adjectives are one of the friendliest parts of Bengali: they do not change for gender or number, and they come before the noun, just like in English.

Useful adjectives

• বড় (boro) — big
• ছোট (chhoto) — small
• ভালো (bhalo) — good
• খারাপ (kharap) — bad
• সুন্দর (shundor) — beautiful
• নতুন (notun) — new
• পুরনো (purono) — old (things)
• গরম (gorom) — hot
• ঠান্ডা (thanda) — cold
• সহজ (shohoj) — easy
• কঠিন (kothin) — difficult
• দামি (dami) — expensive
• সস্তা (shosta) — cheap

No agreement

The adjective stays the same whether the noun is masculine, feminine, singular or plural: বড় ঘর (boro ghor, big room), বড় ঘরগুলো (boro ghorgulo, the big rooms).

Adjectives as predicates

To say something is an adjective, place the adjective after the noun, with no verb in the present tense: আজ আবহাওয়া ভালো (aj abohawa bhalo), "The weather is good today."

Making comparisons

To say "X is more … than Y", use চেয়ে (cheye) after the thing being compared, and often বেশি (beshi):

• সে আমার চেয়ে লম্বা — she amar cheye lomba — He/she is taller than me.
• এটা ওটার চেয়ে ভালো — eta otar cheye bhalo — This is better than that.
• আজ কালকের চেয়ে বেশি গরম — aj kalker cheye beshi gorom — Today is hotter than yesterday.

The superlative

For "the most", use সবচেয়ে (shobcheye), meaning "than all":

• সে সবচেয়ে লম্বা — she shobcheye lomba — He/she is the tallest.
• এটা সবচেয়ে সুন্দর — eta shobcheye shundor — This is the most beautiful.

Intensifiers

• খুব (khub) — very
• অনেক (onek) — a lot, very
• একটু (ektu) — a little
• বেশ (besh) — quite, rather
• অত্যন্ত (ottonto) — extremely (formal)

Repeating an adjective also intensifies it, as in বড় বড় (boro boro, "very big" or "big ones").

From adjectives to nouns and adverbs

Many adjectives become nouns with -তা (-ta) and adverbs by adding -ভাবে (-bhabe): সুন্দর → সুন্দরভাবে (shundorbhabe), "beautifully".

Common mistakes

• Trying to add gender endings.
• Placing the adjective after the noun in noun phrases.
• Forgetting চেয়ে when comparing.

Practice

1. Describe five objects around you.
2. Compare two of them with চেয়ে.
3. Use সবচেয়ে to name your favourites.
4. Look up any new adjective in a dictionary.

Look up Bengali adjectives with English Bangla Dictionary →