보다 + 더 / 덜: More Than, Less Than

The particle 보다 means "than," but by itself it only sets up the comparison — it marks the standard you are measuring against. To say explicitly which direction the comparison runs, and by how much, Korean adds an adverb before the predicate: 더 ("more") or 덜 ("less"). The result is the everyday comparative pattern: A는 B보다 더 … ("A is more … than B") and A는 B보다 덜 … ("A is less … than B"). This page is about how those two little adverbs steer a 보다 sentence, and about one asymmetry that trips up nearly every English speaker: you can leave 더 out, but you can never leave 덜 out.

The division of labour: 보다 marks, 더/덜 steer

Think of a comparative sentence as having two separate jobs. One job is to name the yardstick — the thing you compare against. That is 보다's job, and it clips onto the standard noun. The other job is to set the direction — more or less — and that is the adverb's job, sitting just before the predicate. Korean assigns each job to a different word:

In the first, 저것보다 sets the yardstick ("than that one") and 더 points the comparison upward ("more"). In the second, 어제보다 sets the yardstick ("than yesterday") and 덜 points it downward ("less"). The predicate itself — 비싸요, 추워요 — is just the plain adjective; it does no comparative work at all. This is very different from English, where the adjective changes ("expensive → more expensive," "cold → colder"). Korean adjectives never inflect for comparison; the adverb carries the whole load.

Here 더 modifies 많이 ("a lot") to give "more (a lot)," i.e. "a greater amount." The order is fixed: the 보다-phrase first, then any degree adverb, then 더/덜, then the predicate.

The asymmetry: 더 is optional, 덜 is mandatory

Now the fact that reorganises how you think about these sentences. Because 보다 fundamentally means "exceeding the standard," a bare 보다 sentence — with no adverb at all — already reads as "more than." Adding 더 only makes that explicit and lets you stack intensifiers on it; drop 더 and the meaning barely shifts.

That sentence has no 더 and still means "more expensive." So 더 is genuinely optional. But 덜 is a completely different story. There is no way for 보다 alone to mean "less than" — left to itself it always defaults to the "exceeds" reading. So to flip the comparison downward, you must insert 덜. It is the only signal that reverses the default direction.

Say 형보다 커요 and it can only mean "bigger than my brother" — 보다 will not give you "smaller" no matter how you intend it. If you mean "less big," you have two choices, and both require an explicit word: add 덜 (형보다 덜 커요, "less big than my brother"), or, more naturally, switch to the antonym adjective.

Honesty check: for many "less …" ideas, native speakers actually prefer the antonym over 덜. "Less tall" is usually 더 작다 ("shorter"), not 덜 크다. 덜 is most natural where there is no tidy antonym — 덜 춥다 ("less cold"), 덜 맵다 ("less spicy"), 덜 익다 ("less cooked / underdone").

Intensifying the comparison: 훨씬, 조금, 좀

The direction adverb can itself be turned up or down by a degree adverb placed in front of it. The two you will use most are 훨씬 ("much, by far") and 조금 / 좀 ("a little").

The ordering inside the sentence stays rigid: [B보다] [훨씬/조금] [더/덜] predicate. The degree adverb always sits outside 더/덜, closer to the front.

The counterpart: 만큼 for equal comparison

Remember that 보다 + 더/덜 is only for unequal comparison — one side wins. When two things reach the same level ("as … as"), you leave this pattern entirely and use 만큼 instead: 형만큼 커요 ("as tall as my brother"). Keep the two systems mentally separate — 보다 for the gap between two things, 만큼 for the match between them.

Common Mistakes

1. Dropping 덜 and expecting "less than." This is the classic transfer error, and it silently inverts your meaning to "more than."

2. Building "less" out of 안 ("not") instead of 덜. "Less cold" is not "not more cold"; the dedicated word is 덜.

3. Putting 더/덜 after the predicate, English-style. In English "more" and "less" can trail the verb ("I eat more"); in Korean they must sit before it.

4. Using 많이 as the "much" intensifier. 많이 means "a lot (in quantity)," not "much (to a greater degree)." To intensify a comparative, the word is 훨씬.

Key Takeaways

• The comparison splits across two words: 보다 (on the standard noun) marks the yardstick "than X"; 더 / 덜 (before the predicate) set the direction, "more" / "less."
• 더 is optional — 보다 alone already means "more than" (이게 저것보다 비싸요). 덜 is mandatory — it's the only way to flip the default to "less than"; 보다 never means "less" on its own.
• For "less," native speakers often prefer the antonym adjective (형보다 작아요, "shorter than") over 덜; 덜 shines where there's no clean antonym (덜 춥다, 덜 맵다).
• Intensify with 훨씬 ("much") or 조금/좀 ("a little"), placed outside 더/덜: 훨씬 더 빨라요.
• Equal comparison ("as … as") is a different system — use 만큼, not 보다.