This article is associated with the course(s):
Introduction to French Grammar

Making Comparisons in French

Once you can describe something in French, a natural next step is to compare it with something else.

You might already be able to say:

Le film est intéressant.
The film is interesting.

But what if you want to say that the film is more interesting than the book? Or that an exhibition was less impressive than a concert? Or that one performance was as moving as another?

French uses three very useful comparison patterns to do this:

The good news is that these structures build directly on adjectives you may already know.

1. From describing to comparing

Let’s take a familiar sentence:

Le film est intéressant.
The film is interesting.

To make a comparison, we can place plus before the adjective and que before the thing we are comparing it with:

Le film est plus intéressant que le livre.
The film is more interesting than the book.

The basic pattern is therefore:

thing + être + plus / moins / aussi + adjective + que + comparison

This is best illustrated.

Notice that French does not normally change the adjective itself to mean more or less. Instead, words such as plus, moins and aussi are placed around the adjective.

2. Saying ‘more … than’ with plus … que

Use:

plus + adjective + que

to say that one thing has more of a particular quality than another.

Le livre est plus captivant que le film.
The book is more captivating than the film.

Le concert est plus divertissant que le spectacle.
The concert is more entertaining than the show.

Cette histoire est plus originale que l’autre.
This story is more original than the other one.

The adjective itself still describes the first thing in the comparison. We will come back to why that matters for agreement shortly.

3. Saying ‘less … than’ with moins … que

For the opposite comparison, use:

moins + adjective + que

Le film est moins captivant que le livre.
The film is less captivating than the book.

L’exposition est moins impressionnante que le concert.
The exhibition is less impressive than the concert.

La fin est moins prévisible que le début.
The ending is less predictable than the beginning.

The structure is identical to the one with plus: only the comparison word changes.

4. Saying ‘as … as’ with aussi … que

When the two things are equal in the quality you are describing, use:

aussi + adjective + que

La pièce est aussi émouvante que le film.
The play is as moving as the film.

Le livre est aussi intéressant que le documentaire.
The book is as interesting as the documentary.

L’interprétation est aussi originale que la première version.
The performance is as original as the first version.

So the three structures work as a family:

5. Adjective agreement still matters

Adding a comparison does not remove the agreement rules you already know.

Compare:

Le film est plus intéressant que la pièce.

but:

La pièce est plus intéressante que le film.

The adjective changes because it describes la pièce, which is feminine.

The noun after que does not determine the adjective form.

That gives us:

This is an important connection with the adjective rules you already know: the comparison is new, but agreement works in exactly the same way.

6. Bringing comparisons into an opinion

Comparisons become particularly useful when you combine them with the opinion language you already know.

Instead of simply saying:

Le livre est captivant.

you can make your opinion more precise:

À mon avis, le livre est plus captivant que le film.
In my opinion, the book is more captivating than the film.

Or:

Je trouve que l’exposition est moins impressionnante que le concert.
I think the exhibition is less impressive than the concert.

And with a past reaction:

Personnellement, j’ai trouvé la pièce aussi émouvante que le film.
Personally, I found the play as moving as the film.

You can also explain your comparison:

À mon avis, le livre est plus captivant que le film parce que l’histoire est plus détaillée.
In my opinion, the book is more captivating than the film because the story is more detailed.

This is where comparisons become much more than a grammar pattern: they allow you to develop and qualify an opinion rather than simply describe something.

7. Que sometimes becomes qu’

Just as elsewhere in French, que shortens to qu’ before a vowel or mute h.

For example:

Ce film est plus intéressant qu’un documentaire classique.
This film is more interesting than a conventional documentary.

La nouvelle version est moins prévisible qu’avant.
The new version is less predictable than before.

Nothing has changed in the comparison itself. Qu’ is simply the shortened form of que.

8. One important exception: bon → meilleur

Most adjectives follow the pattern we have already seen:

plus intéressant
more interesting

plus original
more original

But French does not normally use plus bon as the ordinary comparative of bon.

Instead:

bon → meilleur

So:

Le film est bon.
The film is good.

becomes:

Le film est meilleur que le livre.
The film is better than the book.

Because meilleur is an adjective, it still agrees with the noun it describes:

This is another point where your knowledge of adjective agreement continues to do useful work.

The comparative meilleur is the adjective counterpart of bon.

9. Meilleur or mieux?

English uses better in several different ways, but French distinguishes between meilleur and mieux.

Compare:

Ce film est meilleur que l’autre.
This film is better than the other one.

Here we are describing a thing as better, so we use the adjective meilleur.

But:

Elle chante mieux que Paul.
She sings better than Paul.

Here we are comparing how an action is performed. Mieux is the comparative of bien and does not agree.

A useful way of thinking about the distinction is:

You will also hear C’est mieux — That’s better — as a very common general judgement.

For this lesson, the important connection is that meilleur is an adjective, while mieux is not, so only meilleur follows the adjective-agreement system.

10. What about ‘worse’?

French gives us two useful ways of comparing the adjective mauvais:

plus mauvais que
worse than

and:

pire que
worse than

For example:

Ce film est plus mauvais que le précédent.

or:

Ce film est pire que le précédent.

Both can express the idea that the film is worse than the previous one. Pire is itself already a comparative form, so we do not say plus pire.

For comparisons such as less bad and as bad as, keep the ordinary adjective:

moins mauvais que
less bad than

aussi mauvais que
as bad as

The pattern to remember

For comparisons with adjectives:

plus + adjective + que
more … than

moins + adjective + que
less … than

aussi + adjective + que
as … as

And remember that the adjective still agrees with the person or thing it describes.

So once you can say:

La pièce est intéressante.

you are only one small step away from:

À mon avis, la pièce est plus intéressante que le film.