Comparative -er + als, superlative am -sten
German builds the comparative and superlative by adding an ending, not a separate word like English "more"/"most":
als follows the comparative for "than". The predicate am …-sten never changes for gender or number — unlike the attributive der/die/das …-ste (1.3).
Six irregular comparative/superlative pairs
Six very common adjectives/adverbs form the comparative and superlative as different words (like good/better/best) — memorise them:
Umlaut comparatives; adverbs do not change
Umlaut group — otherwise-regular one-syllable adjectives that add an umlaut: alt → älter, jung → jünger, kalt → kälter, warm → wärmer, lang → länger, stark → stärker.
Adverbs of time, place and manner never change form (manner reuses the adjective, no -ly: Er singt gut). Fixed phrases: nach Hause (home, motion) vs zu Hause (at home, location); quantifiers sehr, ein bisschen are invariable.
Drawn from real examiner reports.
Doubled comparative marker
Marking the comparative twice — the -er ending plus a spare -er — produces a doubled marker:
Add the umlaut (where needed) and a single -er, then stop — German never stacks a second comparative marker on the same word.
(s22 P42 Accuracy: gesunderer for gesünder, a doubled comparative marker)
mehr + adjective instead of -er
English uses a separate word ("more important"), so candidates write mehr before an unchanged adjective — but a regular German comparative is always the -er form:
mehr alone is only the comparative of viel (mehr Zeit); it is not a general "more" marker.
(s23 P42 Task 4: mehr umweltfreundlich/mehr wichtig instead of the -er forms)
Dropping the comparative umlaut
Several one-syllable adjectives (alt, jung, kalt, warm, lang, stark) take an umlaut in the comparative — English gives no clue, so it is dropped:
Without it, alter is the noun Alter (age), not the comparative of alt.
(s22/w22/s23/w23 P42/43 Accuracy names comparatives every sitting; alt → älter is the concrete instance)
Regularising the superlative of nah
nah (near) takes an umlaut in the comparative and a different stem in the superlative — not a regular -sten:
Likewise hoch → höher (drops the -c-), groß → größer. These irregulars are learned as fixed forms, not derived.
(general FL trap)
nach Hause vs zu Hause
German distinguishes motion from location with two fixed phrases that are easy to swap:
Choose by whether the verb shows movement or a state: nach Hause after gehen/fahren/kommen; zu Hause after sein/bleiben.
(general FL trap)
Adding an -ly-style ending to an adverb
German has no -ly adverb ending: a manner adverb is just the plain adjective, unchanged:
The same word does double duty — ein gutes Lied (adjective) and Er singt gut (adverb). Never invent an -lich/-ly ending.
(general FL trap)
German uses -er, not mehr + adjective
English says "more important", so candidates write mehr before an unchanged adjective (mehr wichtig) instead of adding -er (wichtiger). A related error treats umlauts as optional: alter for älter — a different word (Alter = age). A regular comparative is always adjective + -er (umlaut for the short list); mehr is only the comparative of viel.
(s23 P42 Task 4: the mehr wichtig / mehr umweltfreundlich periphrasis traces this misconception)
Irregular? Umlaut? Then one ending
For any comparison, check in order:
Vary structures for the Range mark
Beyond …-er als…, show range: use so … wie for an equal comparison (so groß wie sein Vater), and front a superlative with inversion (Am liebsten fahre ich Rad) to show off word order. Examiners award Range for varied comparison structures.
Predicate superlative am -sten is fixed
For "the most" in a predicate, use am + adjective + -sten — it never changes for gender or number: Chris ist am ältesten, am höchsten. Don't decline it here; the declined der/die/das …-ste is the attributive form (1.3).
German compares things by changing the adjective itself — it almost never uses a stand-alone word like English "more"/"most". This topic also covers adverbs (words that describe an action, not a noun) and a handful of everyday quantifiers.
The three degrees of a regular adjective:
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