보다: Than (Comparative)

To compare two things in Korean, you don't conjugate the adjective the way English does ("tall → taller"). Korean adjectives don't inflect for degree at all. Instead you mark the standard of comparison — the yardstick you're measuring against — with the particle 보다 "than," and leave the adjective in its plain form. The entire skill is knowing which noun 보다 attaches to, because it always clings to the thing being exceeded, never to the subject. Put it on the wrong noun and you don't get a clumsy sentence — you get the exact opposite of what you meant.

The pattern: A는 B보다 [더] 형용사

The comparative frame is A는 B보다 [더] + adjective = "A is more [adjective] than B." A is the subject (the winner of the comparison), B is the standard (what A beats), and 보다 marks B.

Read 형보다 as a single unit: "than my brother." 보다 has no allomorphy — it's always 보다 whether the noun ends in a vowel or a consonant (형보다, 저보다, 어제보다) — and it cliticizes directly onto the noun with no space. It behaves like a little postposition meaning "compared to."

The reframing English speakers need: word order

Here is the trap. In English, "than" also comes before the standard — "taller than my brother" — so the surface order feels parallel to Korean 형보다 커요, and learners relax. But the two languages hang the machinery on different words. English "taller" carries the comparison in the adjective, and "than" is a lightweight link. Korean does the reverse: the adjective 크다 stays plain, and 보다 carries the comparison, welded to the standard. So you must track the standard explicitly. In 저는 형보다 커요, the subject 저 (me) is the taller one and 형 (brother) is the standard I beat. Everything hinges on 보다 sitting on 형.

더 "more" is optional — and usually dropped

You'll often see 더 "more" between the standard and the adjective (형보다 더 커요). But 보다 already announces a comparison, so 더 is optional and frequently omitted — 형보다 커요 and 형보다 더 커요 mean the same thing.

Add 더 for emphasis or rhythm; leave it out and nothing is lost. The flip side — 덜 "less" (이게 저것보다 덜 비싸요 "this is less expensive than that") — and the finer 더/덜 tuning have their own page: see 보다 + 더 / 덜.

보다 can take a whole idea as the standard

The standard doesn't have to be a simple noun. Two everyday set expressions clamp 보다 onto an abstract noun — 생각 "thought," 무엇 "anything" — to compare against an expectation or against everything else.

생각보다 ("than [I] thought") is one of the most useful phrases in the language — you can drop it in front of almost any adjective (생각보다 맛있어요, 생각보다 쉬워요). And 무엇보다 ("more than anything") pairs naturally with the superlative words 제일/가장 — see superlatives 제일 / 가장, the top of the same scale 보다 lives on.

"I prefer X to Y": A보다 B가 좋다

A hugely common use is stating a preference. Because 좋다 "is good/likable" works with 보다, "I prefer B to A" comes out as A보다 B가 (더) 좋아요 — literally "compared to A, B is (more) good."

Notice 것보다 in the second sentence — 보다 has clamped onto the bound noun 것, letting a whole clause ("eating out") serve as the standard. This is how Korean compares actions, not just things.

Common Mistakes

1. Putting 보다 on the subject instead of the standard — which reverses the meaning. This is the cardinal error. If you mean "I'm taller than my brother," 보다 must sit on 형, not on 저.

2. Adding a space before 보다. It's a clitic particle — write it attached to the noun.

3. Trying to inflect the adjective like English. Korean adjectives have no "-er" form; the comparison lives entirely in 보다.

4. Reaching for 보다 when you mean "as much as." "As X as B" (equal degree) is 만큼, not 보다 (which means more/less than).

See 만큼: as much as for the equality partner of 보다.

Key Takeaways

• 보다 = "than," and it marks the standard (the thing exceeded): A는 B보다 [더] adjective.
• It has no allomorphy (always 보다) and attaches directly with no space (형보다).
• 더 "more" is optional and often dropped, since 보다 already signals the comparison; 덜 gives "less than."
• The killer error is putting 보다 on the subject — 저보다 형이 커요 means "my brother is taller than me," the reverse of 저는 형보다 커요.
• For equal degree ("as much as") use 만큼; for the 더/덜 fine-tuning see 보다 + 더 / 덜.