to the basic adjective and then adding the appropriate adjective endings (see 51 for
comparison of adverbs):Ich lese ein interessanteres Buch als dieses.
I’m reading a more interesting book than that.Das muss wohl das interessanteste Buch in der ganzen Bibliothek
sein.
That must be the most interesting book in the whole library.
Die breitere Straße bringt ja nur noch mehr Verkehr.
The wider road will only bring more traffic.Wir landeten auf der breitesten Landebahn.
We landed on the widest runway.Care must be taken with -er endings as some adjectives end in -er. For example:Das Essen war lecker.
The meal was tasty.
Ein leckeres Essen.
A tasty meal.
But:
Ein leckereres Essen
A tastier meal (see 43 )48.2 Most common adjectives of one syllable add an umlaut to a, o or u in the comparative
or superlative. These include:
alt ‘old’
dumm ‘stupid’
grob ‘coarse/rough’
hart ‘hard/harsh’
kalt ‘cold’
klug ‘clever’
krank ‘ill’
kurz ‘short’
lang ‘long’
scharf ‘sharp’
schwach ‘weak’
schwarz ‘black’
stark ‘strong’
warm ‘warm’
Das ist ja eine viel längere Straße als unsere.
That’s a much longer street than ours.
Wir möchten in einem wärmeren Klima leben.
We’d like to live in a warmer climate.
Die jüngste Tochter ist schon verheiratet.
The youngest daughter is already married.See 44–6 (pp. 118–23) for rules on adjective endings.
48.3 The superlative with -est is usually employed with adjectives whose simple or basic
form ends in -d, -s, -sch, -ß, -t, -tz, -x or -z:
48
ADJECTIVES AND ADVERBS