Usually, we say “más grande” or “más pequeño” when comparing size, and “mayor” or “menor” when we talk about age: Mi hermano es mayor que yo Mi coche es más grande que el tuyo SUPERLATIVES In English, the superlative is expressed by using the word “most” (or “least”) or the ending “-est” added to an adjective. The equivalent to this in Spanish is the following structure: definite article + más (or menos) + adjective + de (don’t say “en”!) Ejemplos: Carlos es el más alto de la clase. Ana es la más alta de la clase. Carlos y Ana son los más altos de la clase. Carlos y Pedro son los más altos de la clase. Remember to use the right form of the article and the adjective, so that they agree in gender and number with the subject of the sentence. There is another way of expressing the superlative in Spanish, by adding the endings ísimo, – ísima, –ísimos or –ísimas to an adjective. We refer to this as the “absolute superlative”, and it translates loosely as “incredibly + adjective”: Carlos es altísimo – Carlos es incredibly tall. Ana es altísima – Ana is incredibly tall. As it was the case with comparatives, some adjectives take irregular forms in the superlative: bueno – el mejor (not “el más bueno”) malo – el peor (not “el más malo”) grande – el mayor (although “el más grande” is also used) pequeño – el menor (although “el más pequeño” is also used) With the last two, we tend to use the regular form (“el más grande”) to talk abour size and the irregular form (“el mayor”) to talk about age.
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