Hi guys, welcome back to ItalianPod101.com. |
My name is Desy, mi chiamo Desy, mi chiamo Desy, and in this video, we're going to talk about comparative and superlative. |
comparativo e superlativo |
As the name suggests, of course, we need two terms of comparison, right? |
The question is, what do we put in between? |
So, in Italian, to compare, we have, we call it three degrees of comparison, |
tre gradi, there is the comparative of majority, |
il comparativo di maggioranza, |
so when in English you say, this is more interesting than that, right? |
In Italian, this is expressed through the pattern, |
first term of comparison, verb, |
più, stays for more, quality, or what we are talking about, |
di or che, second term of comparison. |
So, for example, it's easier said than told about. |
Luca è più alto di Marco. |
Luca, first term of comparison, |
è, verb, più, more, alto, |
it's not like in English where you have to think if it's shorter, then you add er, otherwise, more, and blah blah. |
No, in Italian, it stays the same. |
So, alto, più alto, di Marco. |
Luca è più alto di Marco. |
Luca is taller than Marco. |
And if you're curious about a longer word, then we can say, |
la bicicletta è più economica dell'automobile. |
The bicycle, the bike, is cheaper than a car. |
La bicicletta è più economica dell'automobile. |
Now, what you want to pay attention to is when to choose between di and che, to express then. |
But don't worry, there are rules. |
Di is used when the two terms of comparison are nouns. |
Like in this case, it can be proper noun, so a person, or just a thing. |
Like we just said, |
Luca è più alto di Marco. |
La bicicletta è più economica dell'automobile. |
Another noun, right? |
You also use that with pronouns. |
For example, io sono più giovane di te. |
I'm younger than you. |
I don't know if it's true. |
Anyway, di te, di lui, di lei works the same. |
Meanwhile, che is used when you're comparing two verbs. |
For example, giocare è più divertente che studiare. |
Playing is funnier, more exciting than studying. |
Giocare è più divertente che studiare. |
Che is also used in between adjectives. |
For example, Maria è più bella che intelligente. |
I'm sorry, too many Maria out there. |
I just thought of a random example. |
Maria is more beautiful than intelligent. |
Quelle scarpe, those shoes, sono più belle che comode. |
Those shoes are more beautiful than comfortable, actually. |
Più belle che. |
Che is also used with prepositions. |
For example, in Piemonte fa più freddo che in Sicilia. |
Piemonte is a region in northern Italy, so in Piemonte fa più freddo. |
In Piemonte is colder than in Sicily. |
Che in Sicilia. |
There are also cases when you can use both, for example with adverbs like |
Oggi fa più freddo di ieri. |
You can also say Oggi fa più freddo che ieri. |
It actually depends like on regions or where you're from. |
We understand it the same and you don't have to think too much about that. |
You can just go with the flow. |
The same goes with comparativo di minoranza, so minority. |
The only thing that changes is that instead of Più, so more, you use meno, less. |
Luca è meno alto di Marco. |
Luca is shorter than Marco, and so on. |
While for comparativo di ugualianza, so when the degree is the same, equality, |
you use the pattern Tanto quanto, or Così come. |
Always in between the two terms of comparison. |
For example, Luca è tanto bello quanto intelligente. |
Luca is so beautiful as much as clever, intelligent. |
Tanto quanto, as much as. |
Quel palazzo è alto quanto casa mia. |
Sometimes we don't put tanto. |
Quel palazzo è alto come casa mia. |
Non sono tanto bella quanto te. |
I'm not that beautiful as you. |
I'm not as much beautiful as you are. |
I'm not beautiful like you. |
Non sono bella quanto te. |
While speaking of the superlative, so when you want to express that equality is possessed |
to the top, like it exceeds every expectation, like there's no comparison, it's absolute, right? |
Superlativo. |
There are actually two types of superlative. |
As you may know, the relative, il relativo, for example, |
Maria è la più bella tra le ragazze. |
Maria is the most beautiful among the girls. |
So we set, we specify a group in which they are the most beautiful or the most something else, right? |
L'italiano è la lingua più difficile tra le lingue europee. |
This may not be true, but Italian is the most difficult language among European languages. |
The important part is the, la, più, so the most. |
Più is the same, both for more and most. |
The thing is, without the article is just more, with the article is most. |
La più, il più bello, tra i ragazzi, among the guys. |
While if you don't want to specify a group, you just want to say that it really is the best, |
doesn't matter what we're talking about. |
L'italiano è bellissimo. |
So you addissimo to the adjective. |
L'italiano è bellissimo. |
So you could say l'italiano è più bello del francese. |
Sorry, no offense. |
Italian is more beautiful than French. |
Più bello di. |
And it's just comparison between two terms, right? |
L'italiano è la più bella tra le lingue. |
Italian is the most beautiful among languages. |
Or l'italiano è bellissimo. |
Italian is beautiful. |
L'italiano è bellissimo. |
Italian is the most beautiful. |
It's beautiful. |
It's superlativo, superlativo, right? |
And you can use that with everything. |
Altissimo, purissimo, difficilissimo, complicatissimo. |
Just addissimo. |
So let me know in the comments what is the most difficult thing in Italian. |
Cosa è più difficile in italiano? |
In my opinion, parlare, in any language actually, parlare è più difficile che capire. |
So speaking is more difficult than understanding. |
Let me know your thoughts in the comments. |
Remember to like and subscribe. |
And if you want to learn Italian in the fastest, easiest and most fun way possible, |
remember to go to ItalianPod101.com and sign up for your free lifetime account. |
There you can find more lessons as well. |
And that's all for this video. |
But I'll see you soon. |
Thanks for watching. |
Ciao ciao. |
Bye bye. |
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