Irregular Comparison: bedre, større, eldre | Norwegian Grammar

Most Norwegian adjectives compare neatly with -ere/-est (fin → finere → finest), and that regular pattern is covered on its own page. But a small set of the most common adjectives in the language refuses to play along — exactly the words you reach for every day: good, big, old, young, long, little, much, many, few. These either change their stem vowel (stor → større) or replace it with a different root entirely (god → bedre). The good news for an English speaker is enormous: English does the same thing with the same words, so you already know the pattern. You just swap in the Norwegian forms.

The whole set at a glance

Here are all nine irregulars with their three forms. Learn this table and you have covered essentially every irregular comparison in everyday Norwegian.

Positive	Comparative	Superlative	Gloss	English parallel
god	bedre	best	good	good → better → best
stor	større	størst	big	(vowel change, like old → elder)
liten	mindre	minst	small / little	little → less → least
gammel	eldre	eldst	old	old → elder → eldest
ung	yngre	yngst	young	(vowel change)
lang	lengre	lengst	long	long → longer → longest
tung	tyngre	tyngst	heavy	(vowel change)
mange	flere	flest	many (count)	many → more → most
mye	mer	mest	much (mass)	much → more → most

Two more belong here, both meaning "bad/few," and both worth knowing:

Positive	Comparative	Superlative	Gloss
vond / ille	verre	verst	bad / nasty
få	færre	færrest	few

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You already own the hardest part. god/bedre/best is the same suppletion as good/better/best, and liten/mindre/minst mirrors little/less/least. English speakers don't need to learn that these words are irregular — only which Norwegian forms fill the slots.

Two kinds of irregularity

The nine split into two mechanisms, and seeing the split makes them far easier to hold in memory.

Suppletion — a completely different root in the comparative, just like English good → better. There are only two truly suppletive adjectives: god → bedre → best and liten → mindre → minst. (And the "bad" word, vond → verre.)

Maten her er god, men kantina nede i gata er enda bedre.

The food here is good, but the canteen down the street is even better. (suppletion: god → bedre)

Leiligheten ble mindre enn vi hadde håpet på.

The flat turned out smaller than we'd hoped for. (suppletion: liten → mindre)

Umlaut (vowel change) — the stem keeps its consonants but shifts its vowel, and adds -re/-st. This is the bigger group: stor → større, ung → yngre, lang → lengre, tung → tyngre, plus gammel → eldre (where gammel loses its whole ending and the root gamm- gives way to the historical eld-). The vowel shift is the old Germanic i-umlaut — the very same process that gives English old → elder and long → length.

Storebroren min er tre år eldre enn meg.

My big brother is three years older than me. (umlaut: gammel → eldre)

Kofferten er altfor tung — har du en større, men lettere bag?

The suitcase is far too heavy — do you have a bigger but lighter bag? (umlaut comparative: større from stor; tung itself stays in the positive here)

Dette er den yngste spilleren på hele laget.

This is the youngest player on the whole team. (umlaut superlative: ung → yngst)

The lengre / lenger trap

This is the single most useful thing on the page, because even fluent learners get it wrong. Norwegian has two words that both look like the comparative of lang, and they are not interchangeable.

lengre = the comparative of the adjective lang (long), and also "longer" of physical or temporal length / distance. It answers how long? — en lengre tur (a longer trip), en lengre periode (a longer period).
lenger = an adverb meaning "(for) longer / any longer / further" in the sense of continuation in time, and "farther" in distance. It answers how much further / how much longer (does it go on)? — vente lenger (wait longer), ikke lenger (not any longer / no longer).

Form	Word class	Sense	Example
lengre	adjective	greater in length/extent	en lengre samtale (a longer conversation)
lenger	adverb	for a longer time; further; (not) any longer	Jeg orker ikke vente lenger. (I can't bear to wait any longer.)

Vi tok en lengre pause enn vanlig fordi været var så fint.

We took a longer break than usual because the weather was so nice. (adjective lengre — modifies the noun 'pause')

Jeg bor ikke her lenger; jeg flyttet i fjor.

I don't live here any longer; I moved last year. (adverb lenger — 'ikke ... lenger' = no longer)

Bussen går lenger enn jeg trodde — helt til neste by.

The bus goes farther than I thought — all the way to the next town. (adverb lenger — distance/continuation)

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Quick test: if the word sits in front of a noun and describes it, it's the adjective lengre (en lengre tur). If it attaches to a verb and means "longer in time" or "any more," it's the adverb lenger (vente lenger, ikke lenger). The -re/-er ending is the giveaway, and it is the opposite of what English intuition suggests.

mer vs flere: the count/mass split

English collapses much and many into a single comparative, more — more water, more bottles. Norwegian keeps them apart, and this is the most frequent irregular-comparison error English speakers make.

mer is the comparative of mye (much) — used with mass nouns you can't count: mer vann, mer tid, mer plass.
flere is the comparative of mange (many) — used with count nouns you can count: flere bøker, flere venner, flere ganger.

Kan jeg få litt mer kaffe, takk?

Can I have a little more coffee, please? (mass noun → mer)

Vi trenger flere stoler — det kommer flere gjester enn vi trodde.

We need more chairs — more guests are coming than we thought. (count nouns → flere)

Det tar mer tid å gjøre det skikkelig.

It takes more time to do it properly. (mass noun 'tid' → mer)

The same split runs through the superlative: mest (most + mass: mest tid) versus flest (most + count: flest stemmer, the most votes). And the "few" word patterns with count nouns too: få → færre → færrest (færre biler, fewer cars), which is the mirror image of flere. There is no "mindre bøker" for "fewer books" in careful Norwegian — that's færre bøker.

Definite and predicative forms behave normally

Once you have the irregular comparative or superlative, it slots into the sentence exactly like a regular one. The comparative never agrees (en større bil, et større hus, større biler — all større). The superlative is bare after å være (Huset er størst) and takes the definite -e in front of a noun (det største huset), the same double-definite pattern as the regulars.

Av alle husene i gata er dette det eldste.

Of all the houses on the street, this is the oldest. (predicative superlative — bare 'eldst', here nominalised with 'det')

Den beste løsningen er som regel den enkleste.

The best solution is usually the simplest. (definite superlative 'beste' + noun)

Common Mistakes

Regularising the irregulars. Treating god or gammel as if they took -ere/-est, producing non-words. These are exactly the words that don't.

❌ Denne er godere enn den andre.

Incorrect — 'good' is suppletive: 'Denne er bedre enn den andre'.

✅ Denne er bedre enn den andre.

This one is better than the other.

❌ Han er gammelere enn broren sin.

Incorrect — use the umlaut form: 'Han er eldre enn broren sin'.

✅ Han er eldre enn broren sin.

He's older than his brother.

Using mer with a count noun. English "more books" tempts you into mer bøker. Countable things take flere.

❌ Jeg vil lese mer bøker i år.

Incorrect — count noun needs 'flere': 'Jeg vil lese flere bøker i år'.

✅ Jeg vil lese flere bøker i år.

I want to read more books this year.

Confusing lengre and lenger. Using the adjective lengre for "any longer," or the adverb lenger in front of a noun.

❌ Jeg vil ikke vente lengre.

Incorrect — 'wait longer' is the adverb: 'Jeg vil ikke vente lenger'.

✅ Jeg vil ikke vente lenger.

I don't want to wait any longer.

Using mindre for "fewer." Mindre is "smaller/less" (mass); countable "fewer" is færre.

❌ Det er mindre folk her i dag.

Incorrect — countable 'people' needs 'færre': 'Det er færre folk her i dag'.

✅ Det er færre folk her i dag.

There are fewer people here today.

Forgetting the vowel change. Writing langere or ungere instead of the umlauted lengre/yngre.

❌ Veien er langere enn på kartet.

Incorrect — umlaut form: 'Veien er lengre enn på kartet'.

✅ Veien er lengre enn på kartet.

The road is longer than on the map.

Key Takeaways

Nine everyday adjectives are irregular: god/bedre/best, stor/større/størst, liten/mindre/minst, gammel/eldre/eldst, ung/yngre/yngst, lang/lengre/lengst, tung/tyngre/tyngst, mange/flere/flest, mye/mer/mest (plus vond/verre/verst, få/færre/færrest).
Two are true suppletion (god → bedre, liten → mindre); the rest are umlaut vowel changes — the same Germanic process behind English old → elder.
mer = more + mass (mer tid); flere = more + count (flere bøker). Likewise mest vs flest, and færre for "fewer."
The lengre/lenger trap: lengre is the adjective ("longer in extent"), lenger is the adverb ("any longer, farther").
The comparative never agrees; the superlative takes the definite -e in front of a noun (det største huset).

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