1. Home
  2. German Practice
  3. The Adjective
  4. Comparative Phrases

Comparative Phrases by Jeffery Donley, Ph.D.

You must use so … wie to compare two equivalent states. An example of this is the sentence Ich bin so groö wie du, which means “I am as tall as you.” The so + adjective + wie translates as “as + adjective + as.”

Use the comparative with als (than) to state a comparison of adjectives of unequal states. Here are some examples:

Texas ist grööer als Deutschland. “Texas is bigger than Germany.”

München ist teurer als Berlin. “Munich is more expensive than Berlin.”

Exercise 16

Match the German sentences with their English equivalents.

<tgroup cols="2" align="center"> <colspec colnum="1" colname="col1" colwidth="50%" colsep="0" rowsep="0" align="left"/> <colspec colnum="2" colname="col2" colwidth="50%" colsep="0" rowsep="0" align="left"/> <tbody> <tr> <td><p>1. <emphasis>Johann ist grööer als</emphasis></p></td> <td><p>Johann is as tall as my</p></td> </tr> <tr> <td><p><emphasis>mein Schwager</emphasis>.</p></td> <td><p>father-in-law.</p></td> </tr> <tr> <td><p>2. <emphasis>Sie ist nicht so groö wie er</emphasis>.</p></td> <td><p>She is not as tall as he.</p></td> </tr> <tr> <td><p>3. <emphasis>Johann ist so groö wie</emphasis></p></td> <td><p>Johann is taller than my</p></td> </tr> <tr> <td><p><emphasis>mein Schwiegervater</emphasis>.</p></td> <td><p>brother-in-law.</p></td> </tr> </tbody> </tgroup> </table> <!--/gc--> <div id="pagination"><ul><li class="prev"><a href="http://www.netplaces.com/german-practice/the-adjective/adjectives-vs-adverbs.htm" title="Adjectives vs. Adverbs">Adjectives vs. Adverbs</a></li><li class="next"><a href="http://www.netplaces.com/german-practice/the-adjective/adjectives-vs-adverbs-irregularity.htm" title="Adjectives vs. Adverbs: Irregularity">Adjectives vs. Adverbs: Irregularity</a> </li></ul></div></div> <div id="coda"> <div id="rel"><div class="n5">Related Articles</div><ul> <li><a href="http://www.netplaces.com/german-practice/the-adjective/comparative-phrases.htm" zT="18/1YL/Zn"> Comparative Phrases - German Practice </a></li> <li><a href="http://grammar.about.com/od/words/a/latinabbrev.htm" zT="18/1YL/Zn"> Commonly Confused Latin Abbreviations in English - Guidelines for Usin... </a></li> <li><a href="http://german.about.com/od/grammar/a/Asking-Questions-In-German.htm" zT="18/1YL/Zn"> Asking Questions in German - How to ask questions in German </a></li> <li><a href="http://german.about.com/library/definitions/bldef07b_0313.htm" zT="18/1YL/Zn"> German Word of the Day: wie viel - 0313 </a></li> <li><a href="http://german.about.com/library/definitions/bldefb06_1031.htm" zT="18/1YL/Zn"> German Word of the Day - 1031 </a></li> </ul></div> <div id="sec"><div class="n5">Read More The Adjective</div><ul><ul class="col1"><li ><a href="http://www.netplaces.com/german-practice/the-adjective/adjectives-with-and-without-endings.htm">Adjectives With and Without Endings</a></li> <li ><a href="http://www.netplaces.com/german-practice/the-adjective/unpreceded-adjectives.htm">Unpreceded Adjectives</a></li> <li ><a href="http://www.netplaces.com/german-practice/the-adjective/declining-weak-adjectives-adjectives-preceded-by-der-words.htm">Declining Weak Adjectives: Adjectives Preceded by der-words</a></li> <li ><a href="http://www.netplaces.com/german-practice/the-adjective/mixed-adjectives-adjectives-preceded-by-ein-words.htm">Mixed Adjectives: Adjectives Preceded by ein-words</a></li> <li ><a href="http://www.netplaces.com/german-practice/the-adjective/adjectives-as-nouns.htm">Adjectives as Nouns</a></li> <li ><a href="http://www.netplaces.com/german-practice/the-adjective/adjectives-vs-adverbs.htm">Adjectives vs. Adverbs</a></li> </ul><ul class="col2"><li class="btO">Comparative Phrases</li> <li ><a href="http://www.netplaces.com/german-practice/the-adjective/adjectives-vs-adverbs-irregularity.htm">Adjectives vs. Adverbs: Irregularity</a></li> <li ><a href="http://www.netplaces.com/german-practice/the-adjective/the-comparative-and-the-superlative.htm">The Comparative and the Superlative</a></li> <li ><a href="http://www.netplaces.com/german-practice/the-adjective/cardinal-numbers.htm">Cardinal Numbers</a></li> <li ><a href="http://www.netplaces.com/german-practice/the-adjective/telling-time.htm">Telling Time</a></li> </ul></ul></div> </div> <script>if(zSbL<1)zSbL=3;zSB(2);zSbL=0</script> </div> <div id="widgets"><script type="text/javascript">if(z336>0){w('<div id="adB">'+ap[0]+at[4]+as[0]);adunit('','','about.com',ch,gs,336,280,'1','bb',3);w('</div>')}if(z155>0){w('<div id="adP">'+ap[0]+at[4]+as[0]);adunit('','','about.com',ch,gs,336,155,'1','ps',4);w('</div>')}</script> <div id="pg" class="pane"><div class="n3">Shopping</div><div class="cntnr"><a href="http://shop.everything.com/product/the-everything-german-practice-book-with-cd"><img src="http://0.tqn.com/d/np/german-practice/Cover.jpg"></a><h4><a href="http://shop.everything.com/product/the-everything-german-practice-book-with-cd">THE EVERYTHING GERMAN PRACTICE BOOK</a></h4><p><a href="http://shop.everything.com/product/the-everything-german-practice-book-with-cd">By Jeffery Donley, Ph.D.</a></p><div id="fp"><a href="http://shop.everything.com/product/the-everything-german-practice-book-with-cd">Buy This Book</a></div></div></div> <div id="toc" class="pane"><div class="n3">German Practice Sections</div><ul><li><a href="http://www.netplaces.com/german-practice/top-ten-reasons-to-practice-your-german/">Top 10 Reasons to Practice Your German</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.netplaces.com/german-practice/the-article/">The Article</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.netplaces.com/german-practice/the-noun/">The Noun</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.netplaces.com/german-practice/the-pronoun/">The Pronoun</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.netplaces.com/german-practice/prepositions-adverbs-and-conjunctions/">Prepositions, Adverbs, and Conjunctions</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.netplaces.com/german-practice/the-adjective/">The Adjective</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.netplaces.com/german-practice/verbs-section-a/">Verbs: Section A</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.netplaces.com/german-practice/verbs-section-b/">Verbs: Section B</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.netplaces.com/german-practice/appendix-a-answer-key/">Answer Key</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.netplaces.com/german-practice/verb-tables/">German Verb Tables</a></li> </ul></div></div> <script type="text/javascript">zCi();validateForms();</script> <div id="abf" style="padding-right:0"><ol class="crumbtrail"><li class="home"><a href="http://www.netplaces.com/">Home</a></li><li><a href="http://www.netplaces.com/german-practice/">German Practice</a></li><li><a href="http://www.netplaces.com/german-practice/the-adjective/">The Adjective</a></li><li>Comparative Phrases</li></ol></div> <div id="aboutinfo" class="hlist"><div id="morefrom"><h6>Visit other About.com sites:</h6><ul><li><a href="http://caloriecount.about.com/" rel="nofollow">Calorie Count</a></li><li><a href="http://www.consumersearch.com/" rel="nofollow">ConsumerSearch</a></li><li class="last"><a href="http://www.allexperts.com/" rel="nofollow">Allexperts.com</a></li></ul></div> <ul id="siteinfo"><li><a href="http://spiderbites.about.com/sitemap.htm">SiteMap</a></li><li><a href="http://www.about.com/gi/pages/hc.htm" rel="nofollow">Help</a></li><li><a href="http://www.about.com/gi/pages/mprivacy.htm" rel="nofollow">Privacy Policy</a></li><li><a href="http://www.about.com/gi/pages/mprivacy.htm#adchoices" rel="nofollow">Your Ad Choices</a></li><li class="last"><a href="http://www.netplaces.com/pform.htm" rel="nofollow">Contact Us</a></li></ul> <ul id="companyinfo"><li class="last"><a href="http://shop.everything.com/ " rel="nofollow">Buy Books</a></li></ul><div id="disclaimer"><p>Netplaces.com, a part of <a href="http://www.nytco.com/">The New York Times Company</a>.</p><p>All rights reserved.</p></div></div></div> <script type="text/javascript"><!-- zPxA[zPxC]=new Image();zPxA[zPxC++].src="http://b.scorecardresearch.com/p?c1=2&c2=6036459&c7=http%3a%2f%2fwww%2enetplaces%2ecom%2fgerman%2dpractice%2fthe%2dadjective%2fcomparative%2dphrases%2ehtm&c8=Comparative%20Phrases&c9=&cv=2.0&cj=1"; adclose() //--> </script> <script type="text/javascript">(function(){var po=document.createElement('script');po.type='text/javascript';po.async=true;po.src='https://apis.google.com/js/plusone.js';var s=document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0];s.parentNode.insertBefore(po,s)})();</script> </body></html>