Making Comparisons | Danish Grammar

This page is about producing comparison sentences in Danish — saying that one thing is bigger, faster, or just as good as another. The grammar of Danish comparatives is laid out on the adjective pages; here the goal is different. You will assemble whole sentences, slot by slot, until the patterns become automatic and you can build your own.

There are three comparison frames you need, and they map cleanly onto English. Bigger than is større end. As big as is lige så stor som. More interesting (for long adjectives) is mere interessant. Get these three skeletons into your mouth and you can compare almost anything.

Frame 1: "more ... than" with -ere ... end

Most short Danish adjectives form the comparative by adding -ere, and the word for than is end — never som. The word order is exactly like English: subject, verb, comparative adjective, end, the thing you compare against.

Min bror er større end mig.

My brother is bigger than me.

Toget er hurtigere end bussen.

The train is faster than the bus.

Notice that the adjective sits in its base (predicative) form plus -ere: stor → større, hurtig → hurtigere. The comparative does not change for gender or number — større stays større whether you are talking about et hus or en bil.

Det her værelse er mindre end mit gamle.

This room is smaller than my old one.

Er din computer dyrere end min?

Is your computer more expensive than mine?

That last one is a question: Danish forms it by simply putting the verb first (Er din computer ...), the same inversion you use for any yes/no question. The comparison machinery — dyrere end — does not move.

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The word for than in a comparison is always end, and it is pronounced almost like the English enn. Do not reach for som here — som means as (Frame 2), not than.

A few very common adjectives are irregular, and you simply learn them: god → bedre (good → better), dårlig → værre (bad → worse), gammel → ældre (old → older), ung → yngre (young → younger), lille → mindre (little → smaller), mange → flere (many → more).

Kaffen er bedre her end på den anden café.

The coffee is better here than at the other café.

Min søster er to år ældre end mig.

My sister is two years older than me.

Frame 2: "as ... as" with lige så ... som

To say two things are equal, Danish wraps the adjective in lige så ... som. Literally it is just as ... as. The adjective stays in its plain base form (no -ere), and here the word for as is som.

Hun er lige så høj som sin mor.

She is as tall as her mother.

Filmen var lige så god som bogen.

The film was just as good as the book.

In the negative — not as ... as — you put ikke after the verb, and the frame is unchanged.

Vejret er ikke lige så dårligt som i går.

The weather isn't as bad as yesterday.

You will also hear the shorter så ... som without lige, especially in writing. Lige simply adds emphasis (exactly as). Both are correct; lige så ... som is the safe everyday choice.

Frame 3: periphrastic mere / mest for long adjectives

Long adjectives — most of those ending in -isk, -et, -ende, and borrowed words — do not take -ere. Instead they use mere (more) before the adjective, exactly as English uses more before interesting, expensive, intelligent.

Den her opgave er mere kompliceret end den sidste.

This task is more complicated than the last one.

Hans nye lejlighed er mere moderne end den gamle.

His new flat is more modern than the old one.

The dividing line is the same instinct English speakers already have: short, common words take the ending (hurtigere, billigere); long or foreign-feeling words take mere (mere praktisk, mere interessant). When you are unsure, native speakers usually accept the mere version, so it is the safer fallback for an unfamiliar long adjective.

Superlatives in context: "the biggest"

The superlative adds -st (størst, hurtigst) or, for long adjectives, uses mest (mest interessant). In a real sentence the superlative almost always takes the definite article den/det, agreeing with the noun's gender.

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The comparative ending -ere never changes for gender or number: it is større whether the noun is en bil or et hus, singular or plural. Only the superlative takes an extra -e before a plural or possessive (de største huse).

Det er den største pizza, jeg nogensinde har set.

That's the biggest pizza I've ever seen.

Hvilken vej er den hurtigste?

Which way is the quickest?

København er den mest besøgte by i Danmark.

Copenhagen is the most visited city in Denmark.

Use den for common-gender nouns (en-words, like en by) and det for neuter nouns (et-words, like et hus). After a plural or after a possessive, the superlative ends in -ste: de største huse (the biggest houses), min bedste ven (my best friend).

Fill the slot

Swap any word into the frame and you can compare anything. Keep the skeleton; change only the bold slots.

Frame	Subject	Adjective	Compared to
... er ___ere end ...	Min cykel	billigere	din
... er ___ere end ...	Hunden	hurtigere	katten
... er lige så _ som ...	Jeg	træt	dig
... er lige så _ som ...	Maden	god	i går
... er mere _ end ...	Bogen	spændende	filmen
... er den ___ste ...	Det	stor	i klassen

For example, reading across the first row: Min cykel er billigere end din (My bike is cheaper than yours). Across the fifth row: Bogen er mere spændende end filmen (The book is more exciting than the film).

Word order recap

Comparison sentences obey the ordinary Danish V2 rule: the finite verb is the second element. In a plain statement the subject comes first, the verb second, and the whole comparative phrase trails after.

I dag er det koldere end i går.

Today it's colder than yesterday.

Here a time word (I dag) opens the sentence, so the subject det moves to after the verb er — that is V2 in action. The comparative koldere end i går still sits at the end, untouched.

Common Mistakes

❌ Min bror er mere stor end mig.

Incorrect — short adjective should take -ere, not mere.

✅ Min bror er større end mig.

My brother is bigger than me.

English speakers reach for more by default, but Danish, like English itself, adds an ending to short adjectives. You would never say more big in English; do not say mere stor in Danish.

❌ Toget er hurtigere som bussen.

Incorrect — 'than' is end, not som.

✅ Toget er hurtigere end bussen.

The train is faster than the bus.

This is the single most common error. Som means as and belongs only in the lige så ... som frame. For than, always use end.

❌ Hun er lige så høj end sin mor.

Incorrect — the equality frame closes with som, not end.

✅ Hun er lige så høj som sin mor.

She is as tall as her mother.

Once you have opened with lige så, you must close with som. Mixing the two frames (lige så ... end) is wrong.

❌ Det er størst pizza, jeg har set.

Incorrect — the superlative needs the article den/det.

✅ Det er den største pizza, jeg har set.

That's the biggest pizza I've seen.

A superlative used before a noun almost always carries den or det and the -ste ending. Bare størst without the article sounds incomplete here.

Key Takeaways

More ... than (short adjectives): -ere ... end — større end, hurtigere end.
More ... than (long adjectives): mere ... end — mere kompliceret end.
As ... as: lige så ... som — and the negative just inserts ikke after the verb.
The most ...: den/det ___ste or den/det mest ..., with the article agreeing in gender.
Than is end; as is som. Never swap them.

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