SYNTAX: COMPARISON

1. Most adjectives and adverbs can be compared. In Catalan, as in most languages, there are three degrees of comparison.

a) inferiority: menys + ADJ/ADV + que

l’Alícia és menys alta que la Clara	Alice is less tall than Clara
l’Alicia és menys interessant que la Clara	Alice is less interesting than Clara

a) equality: tan + ADJ/ADV + com

l’Alícia és tan alta com la Clara	Alice is as tall as Clara
l’Alicia tan interessant com la Clara	Alice is as interesting as Clara

a) superiority: més + ADJ/ADV + que

l’Alícia és més alta que la Clara	Alice is taller than Clara
l’Alicia és més interessant que la Clara	Alice is more interesting than Clara

The second term of the comparison is obviously not always expressed.

2. Catalan also knows superlative structures, which are built up within the Noun Phrase together with the definite article; a second part may be added, which limits the scope of the comparison:

l’Alícia és l’atleta més ràpida de l’equip	Alice is the quickest athlete in the team
l’Alícia és l’atleta menys castigada de l’equip	Alice is the less punished athlete in the team

3. There is a certain number of adjectives and adverbs presenting synthetic forms to express superiority, thus they are irregular:

SIMPLE ADJECTIVE / ADVERB	COMPARATIVE FORM
bo/bon (adjective)	millor
bé (adverb)
dolent/mal (adjective)	pitjor
malament (adverb)
gran	major
petit	menor

Nevertheless, these forms may turn out too formal. The trend in every day’s language is to substitute them for the “regular” forms, i.e.: més bo, més bé, més dolent, més gran, més petit.

It is possible to find millor and pitjor used attributively before a noun:

és la millor idea que has tingut	It is the best idea you’ve ever had
és la idea més bona que has tingut	It is the best idea you’ve ever had

4. Nouns are compared similarly:

l’Alícia té més diners que jo	Alice has more money than me
l’Alícia té tants diners com jo	Alice has as much money as me
l’Alícia té menys diners que jo	Alice has less money than me

5. A few explanations should be made concerning the comparison of nouns.

(a)  Equality comparison modifier varies its gender and number: tant, tanta, tants, tantes

l’Alícia té tanta por com jo	Alice is as afraid as me
l’Alícia té tantes amigues com jo	Alice has got as many friends as me
l’Alícia té tanta feina com jo	Alice has got as much work as me

 (b) All these modifiers may be followed by the preposition de, when preceding uncountable nouns:

l’Alícia té més aigua que jo	Alice has more water than me
l’Alícia té tanta d’aigua com jo	Alice has as much water as me
l’Alícia té menys aigua que jo	Alice has less water than me

WORD CLASS: ADJECTIVES. GENERALITIES

1. Adjectives share a great deal of features with nouns, such as inflection. Actually all the endings used for both gender inflection and number inflection are also to be found in adjectives. However, adjectives have one more kind of inflection: comparison, which is a category adjectives also share with adverbs.

2. Adjectives may work as nouns in most cases. As a matter of fact, certain words may be either. Adjectives working as nouns are preceded by determiners. Their equivalence with English may vary, since English adjectives do not work as nouns as a rule, except in a few cases when they do not take plural endings:

els morts no es queixen	dead (people) do not complain
tots els malalts de tifus són a una secció especial de l’hospital	all typhus patients are placed in a special section of the hospital
m’agrada la blanca	I like the white one

Adjectives working as nouns are obviously predicative ones

3. As in most Romance languages, attributively-used adjectives are normally placed after nouns (post-nominal position):

la casa groga	the yellow house
el dies estiuencs	the summer days

However, adjectives may be placed before nouns in certain cases:

a) A few adjectives show different meanings when placed before or after the noun:

un públic gran	a large (amount of) audience
un gran públic	a great audience

un regal petit	a small present
un petit regal	a little present

b) Some adjectives take an emphatic value when place before the noun

ens queda un llarg camí	we still have a long way ahead
és una estupenda idea	it’s a great idea

c) Pre-nominal position may have stylistic goals, so that certain uses would be acceptable in literary language but not in the colloquial speech.

era un ric home (literary)	he was a rich man
era un home ric (normal speech)

4. Adjectives agree in gender and number with the noun they depend on (see agreement):

el noi petit	the little boy
els nois petits	the little boys
la noia petita	the little girl
les noies petites	the little girls

5. Catalan knows feminine forms for such adjectives like fort > forta (=strong) or verd > verda (=green), unlike Portuguese, Spanish or Italian.