Arabic: An Essential Grammar

25.9 Comparative and superlative (^) تـ ْف ِضي ِلََّأ ْف َع ُل لـ
As mentioned in 25.2, the pattern َأ ْفـ َع ُل


af

alu (diptote) is characteristic
of adjectives denoting colours and bodily defects. But the same pattern
is also used to form the comparative and superlative degree of adjec-
tives, and participles of the first form in all genders and numbers. This
form of the adjective is also called the elative, e.g.
25.10 Comparative sentences
The preposition ِمـ ْن min ‘from’ is used like the English preposition
‘than’ as a link between the two parts (item compared and object of
comparison) of the comparative sentence. The comparative sentence
thus has the following structure: item compared + comparative (elative)
form of the adjective + (^) ِمـ ْن min + object of comparison, e.g.
َأْل َوَلـ ُد َأ ْصـ َغـ ُر ِمـ ْن ُأ ْخـ ِت ِه^


al-waladu


as
̇
g ̇aru min


uh
̆
ti-hi.
The boy is younger than his sister.
م َأ ْجـ َمـ ُل ِمـ ْن ِبـ ْنـ ِتـ َهـاُّلأَُأْ^


al-


ummu


ag ̆malu min binti-ha ̄.
The mother is more beautiful than her daughter.
ِمـ َن ْ َلأ ْو َلا ِدَأْلـ َبـ َنـا ُت َأ ْحـ َسـ ُن^


al-bana ̄tu


ah
̇
sanu mina l-


awla ̄di.
(The) girls are better than (the) boys.
25.11 The pattern َأ ْفـ َع ُل


af

alu cannot be used to form the compara-
tive of the participles of the derived forms, nor of adjectives with more
than three consonants. In these cases, the comparative is formed by
Adjective Comparative/superlative
(according to the pattern َأ ْف َع ُل


af

alu)
َص ِغي ٌر s
̇
ag ̇ı-run, small َأ ْص َغـ ُر


as
̇
g ̇aru, smaller, smallest
َج ِمي ٌل g ̆amı

• lun, beautiful َأ ْج َم ُل

ag ̆malu, more beautiful, most

beautiful

َوا ِس ٌع wa ̄si



un, wide َأ ْو َس ُع

awsa



u, wider, widest

َح َس ٌن h

̇

asanun, good َأ ْح َس ُن

ah

̇

sanu, better, best

َم ْش ُهو ٌر masˇhu ̄run, famous َأ ْش َه ُر^

asˇharu, more famous, most famous

185

Adjectival

patterns,

relative

adjectives,

comparative