A handful of the most common Dutch adjectives and adverbs don't form their comparative and superlative by the regular -er/-st rules. Instead they switch to entirely different stems — what linguists call suppletion, the same phenomenon behind English good → better → best. Because these words are so frequent, you'll use their irregular forms constantly, so they're worth memorising as fixed sets rather than trying to derive. One of them, graag → liever → liefst, is far more than a grammar curiosity: it's the standard Dutch way to say you'd rather do something or prefer one thing to another.
The four core irregular series
| Base | Comparative | Superlative | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| goed | beter | best | good → better → best |
| veel | meer | meest | much/many → more → most |
| weinig | minder | minst | little/few → less/fewer → least/fewest |
| graag | liever | liefst | gladly → rather → most gladly |
Three of these line up neatly with English irregulars, which makes them easy to remember: goed → beter → best mirrors good → better → best almost letter for letter, and veel → meer → meest tracks much → more → most. Weinig → minder → minst is the little → less → least series. The fourth, graag → liever → liefst, has no clean English match and needs its own treatment below.
Ik vind dit restaurant veel beter dan het vorige.
I think this restaurant is much better than the last one.
Hij heeft de meeste boeken van iedereen in de klas.
He has the most books of anyone in the class.
We hebben dit jaar minder geld uitgegeven aan vakantie.
We spent less money on holidays this year.
Note that the comparatives still inflect attributively like any adjective: beter → betere, minder → mindere. The one to watch is meer, which stays bare before a noun (meer boeken, never meere) — only its superlative meest takes the -e ending, giving de meeste boeken ("the most books"). So you get een betere oplossing ("a better solution") with -e, but meer tijd ("more time") with nothing.
Heb je geen betere oplossing voor dit probleem?
Don't you have a better solution to this problem?
Het is de minste moeite om even te bellen.
It's the least trouble to just call for a moment.
graag → liever → liefst: how Dutch says "rather" and "prefer"
This series deserves its own section because it does heavy lifting in everyday Dutch. The base word graag means roughly "gladly / with pleasure" and is the normal way to say you like doing something: Ik drink graag koffie — "I like (drinking) coffee." Its comparative liever means "rather / preferably," and the superlative liefst (or het liefst) means "most of all / would most like to."
Crucially, where English uses a verb ("prefer") or a special word ("rather"), Dutch just uses this adverb. Liever is the everyday way to express a preference between options.
Ik drink liever thee dan koffie.
I'd rather have tea than coffee. / I prefer tea to coffee. — note 'dan' for the comparison.
Ik ga liever lopen, het is mooi weer.
I'd rather walk, the weather's nice.
Wil je koffie? — Nee, ik wil liever water.
Do you want coffee? — No, I'd rather have water.
And the superlative (het) liefst for your top preference:
Het liefst zou ik de hele dag in de tuin zitten.
Most of all, I'd love to sit in the garden all day.
Ze werkt het liefst 's ochtends, als het nog rustig is.
She likes working in the morning best, when it's still quiet.
A note on na → nader
One more mild irregular worth recognising: na ("close/near," mostly literary or fixed) has the comparative nader ("closer / more closely / further") and superlative naast ("nearest," now mostly an adjective/preposition meaning "next to"). In modern Dutch you'll meet nader most often in set phrases meaning "in more detail."
We bespreken dit later nader.
We'll discuss this in more detail later.
Bij nader inzien was het toch geen goed idee.
On closer reflection, it wasn't a good idea after all. — fixed phrase 'bij nader inzien'.
How this differs from English
The big-three series (goed/veel/weinig) will feel almost effortless, because English has the exact same irregulars (good/better/best, much/more/most, little/less/least) — you're mostly relabelling words you already conjugate irregularly in your own language. The genuine novelty is graag → liever → liefst. English splits this meaning across "gladly," "rather," and "prefer," and treats preference as a verb. Dutch packs it all into one adverb that simply has comparative and superlative degrees. The mistake English speakers make is not seeing liever as available at all — they reach for a clunky verb construction when a native speaker would just say liever.
Common Mistakes
❌ Dit is veel goeder dan dat.
Wrong — 'goed' is irregular: the comparative is 'beter'.
✅ Dit is veel beter dan dat.
This is much better than that.
❌ Hij heeft de veelste boeken.
Wrong — 'veel' is suppletive: comparative 'meer', superlative 'meest/meeste'.
✅ Hij heeft de meeste boeken.
He has the most books.
❌ Ik prefereer thee boven koffie.
Stiff and unidiomatic — Dutch uses 'liever': Ik drink liever thee dan koffie.
✅ Ik drink liever thee dan koffie.
I prefer tea to coffee.
❌ Ik ga liever lopen als fietsen.
Wrong — comparison after 'liever' takes 'dan', not 'als'.
✅ Ik ga liever lopen dan fietsen.
I'd rather walk than cycle.
❌ We hebben dit jaar weiniger geld uitgegeven.
Wrong — 'weinig' is irregular: comparative 'minder'.
✅ We hebben dit jaar minder geld uitgegeven.
We spent less money this year.
Key Takeaways
- Four high-frequency words are suppletive — they switch stems instead of taking -er/-st.
- goed → beter → best, veel → meer → meest, weinig → minder → minst mirror their English equivalents almost exactly.
- These still inflect attributively: betere oplossing, de meeste boeken, de minste moeite.
- graag → liever → liefst is the everyday way to express preference: Ik wil liever X = "I'd rather have X." Don't reach for a verb meaning "to prefer."
- All of these take dan (not als) for "than" after the comparative.
- na → nader survives mainly in fixed phrases like bij nader inzien and iets nader bespreken.
Now practice Dutch
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Start learning Dutch→Related Topics
- The Comparative (-er)A2 — How Dutch forms the comparative with -er, why -r adjectives insert -d- (duurder), and why 'than' must be dan, not als, after a comparative.
- The Superlative (-st)A2 — Forming the Dutch superlative with -st, its attributive het/de …-ste form, the puzzling double-het predicate (het …-st), and when to fall back on meest.
- Graag, Willen, Houden van: Like, Want, LoveB1 — Dutch has no single verb 'to like'. Instead it splits the job three ways: graag (for liking an activity), willen (for wanting), and houden van (for loving a thing or person). This page shows which one each English sentence needs, and why the calque 'ik like' or 'ik hou van koffie drinken' goes wrong.
- Graag, Liever, Het Liefst: Expressing Liking and PreferenceA2 — How Dutch says you like, prefer, or most love doing something — not with a verb 'to like' but with the adverb graag and its comparative liever and superlative het liefst — plus the everyday uses 'ja, graag' (yes please) and 'graag gedaan' (you're welcome).
- Als vs Dan in ComparisonsA2 — After a comparative, Dutch uses dan (groter dan ik, meer dan tien); for equality, it uses zo + adjective + als (net zo groot als). English speakers don't have this problem from their own language, but they hear native speakers say the substandard 'groter als' everywhere. This page gives the clean written rule, head-to-head pairs, and the reason 'groter als' is a shibboleth.