Russian comparatives

[lexabear.livejournal.com]

I need to go over it all myself, so I figured that I'd post here for the good of mankind. Feel free to correct any mistakes. LJ-cut for length.



Russian Comparatives

Russian comparatives are quite easy. In most cases, it's just the adjective with a -ее ending instead of -о/ы/и-й. But consonant shift and some irregulars do apply. Note that many consonant-shift adjectives have only a single е.

Examples:

умный -> умнее smart-smarter
новый -> новее new-newer
красивый -> красивее pretty-prettier (or, beautiful-more beautiful)

богатый -> богаче rich-richer
ранний -> раньше early-earlier

хороший -> лучше good-better
плохой -> хуже bad-worse

However, once you form a comparative, it is not an adjective - it is incorrect to say <<новее машина>> for "newer car". But because these forms are not adjectives, you don't have to worry about declining them in any way - just throw them in.

Since they are not adjectives, how do you say things like "I live in a newer house"? Through use of the word более - <<Я живу в более новом доме>>. Notice how the adjective is declined in this case. You may have noticed that with its -ее ending, более looks awfully lot like a comparative itself. It is!


X is ____er than Y - comparing to an object

There are two possibilities here - using the genative case, or using чем.

Using the genitive

Generally, for simple objects, the genitive case is used. One line that came up in Chekov's "The Bet" (<<Пари>>) was <<Я умнее всех вас.>> - "I am smarter than all of you." However, it is not incorrect to use чем in this instance, but more natural-sounding to use the genitive.

Other examples:
Наташа красивее Нины. - Natasha is prettier than Nina.
этот дом новее того дома. - This house is newer than that house.
Наташа красивее, чем Нина.
этот дом новее, чем тот дом.


Using чем

Чем is mostly used when there is a whole phrase as the object, when you can't really use the genitive.

Example:
По-английски, сказать "I like kittens" лучше, чем сказать "The kittens are pleasing to me." - In English, saying ... is better than saying...

Notice the use of the comma to introduce the чем-clause.


The most - Russian superlatives

So far, we've discussed newer, but not newest. To form superlatives in Russian, use the adjective самый before the other adjective (not its comparative). Because we're using adjectives again, we have to get back to declining, including самый.

Examples:
Она самая умная девушка. - She's the smartest girl.
Я живу в самом новом доме. - I live in the newest building.
Он видел самую красивую девушку. - He saw the prettiest girl.

For emphasis, one can use самый лучший instead of самый хороший for something that is the "most bestest."

I hope that I was clear, helpful, and not incorrect.