Irregular Comparatives and Superlatives | Russian Grammar

The regular Russian comparative is tidy: take the adjective stem, add -ее, and you get an indeclinable word — краси́вый → краси́вее ("more beautiful"), бы́стрый → быстре́е ("faster"). But the comparatives you'll actually reach for most — better, worse, bigger, older, higher — are exactly the ones that break this pattern. Some are suppletive (a completely different root, like English good → better), and many take -е instead of -ее, which forces a consonant mutation in the stem (до́рого → доро́же). There's no deriving these; they are a memorisation list. This page is that list. For how comparatives and superlatives work in a sentence — the simple vs compound types, бо́лее, ча́стица "than," and so on — see the comparative and the superlative.

The high-frequency irregular comparatives

These are the simple (one-word, indeclinable) comparative forms. They don't agree with anything — one form covers all genders, numbers and cases. Use them predicatively (Он вы́ше "He's taller") or with the comparison particle.

Adjective / adverb	Meaning	Comparative	= "more…"
хоро́ший	good	лу́чше	better
плохо́й	bad	ху́же	worse
большо́й	big	бо́льше	bigger / more
ма́ленький	small	ме́ньше	smaller / less
ста́рый	old (people)	ста́рше	older
ста́рый	old (things)	старе́е	older (more dated)
молодо́й	young	моло́же	younger
высо́кий	tall / high	вы́ше	taller / higher
ни́зкий	low / short	ни́же	lower
широ́кий	wide	ши́ре	wider
у́зкий	narrow	у́же	narrower
далеко́	far	да́льше	farther
бли́зко	near	бли́же	nearer
ра́но	early	ра́ньше	earlier
по́здно	late	по́зже	later
ча́сто	often	ча́ще	more often
до́рого	expensive	доро́же	more expensive
дёшево	cheap	деше́вле	cheaper
лёгкий	light / easy	ле́гче	lighter / easier
тяжёлый	heavy / hard	тяжеле́е	heavier / harder
гро́мкий	loud	гро́мче	louder
ти́хий	quiet	ти́ше	quieter

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Beware у́же. With stress on the first syllable, у́же is "narrower" (from у́зкий). With stress on the last, уже́ is the unrelated adverb "already." Same letters, different word — the stress is doing all the work.

The suppletive four: лу́чше, ху́же, бо́льше, ме́ньше

The four most frequent comparatives in the language are suppletive — they come from a different root than their base adjective, just like English good/better, bad/worse, much/more, little/less. There is no rule to apply; these are pure vocabulary:

В э́том году́ пого́да гора́здо ху́же, чем в про́шлом.

The weather this year is far worse than last year. — ху́же from плохо́й.

Дава́й возьмём маши́ну побо́льше — бага́жник тут сли́шком ма́ленький.

Let's get a bigger car — the boot here is too small. — побо́льше, the softened 'a bit bigger'.

The prefix по- added to a comparative softens it to "a bit / somewhat" — полу́чше "a bit better," побо́льше "a bit bigger," пораньше "a bit earlier." This is extremely common in speech.

Mutation comparatives: why до́рого becomes доро́же

A large group takes -е rather than -ее, and the -е triggers a consonant change at the end of the stem — the same palatalisation you see across Russian morphology. The pairings are regular once you know them:

Stem ends in	Mutates to	Example
г	ж	до́рог- → доро́же; строг- → стро́же
к	ч	лёгк- (→ ле́гче); громк- → гро́мче
х	ш	тих- → ти́ше; сух- → су́ше
д	ж	молод- → моло́же; твёрд- → твёрже
т	ч	бога́т- → бога́че; крут- → кру́че
ст	щ	часто → ча́ще; прост- → про́ще

So доро́же isn't an exception to be feared — it's до́рог- with г→ж before -е. ле́гче is special even here: it has both the к→ч mutation and an extra softening (the /g/ in лёгкий surfaces, then palatalises), giving the cluster -гч-. Don't try to derive ле́гче from the table; just learn it.

Здесь зна́чительно ти́ше, чем на у́лице.

It's considerably quieter here than outside. — ти́ше, х → ш from ти́хий.

По́сле трениро́вки рюкза́к каза́лся ещё тяжеле́е.

After the workout the backpack seemed even heavier. — тяжеле́е is regular -ее (тяжёлый), no mutation.

Notice the contrast in that last pair: ти́хий mutates (ти́ше), but тяжёлый takes plain -ее (тяжеле́е). There's no surface logic to which adjective does which — it has to be memorised per word.

ста́рше vs старе́е: a split by meaning

A handful of adjectives have two comparatives that mean different things. The most important is ста́рый ("old"):

ста́рше — older in age, used of people (and animals). Моя́ сестра́ ста́рше меня́.
старе́е — older in the sense of more dated / more worn, used of things. Э́тот телефо́н старе́е того́.

Брат ста́рше меня́ на три го́да.

My brother is three years older than me. — ста́рше: age of a person.

Э́то зда́ние гора́здо старе́е сосе́днего.

This building is much older than the one next door. — старе́е: a thing's age/antiquity.

Use the wrong one and you'll be understood, but it sounds off — like saying a person is "more dated."

Suppletive superlative adjectives: лу́чший, ху́дший, ста́рший, мла́дший

Separately from the indeclinable comparatives above, four high-frequency words are full declinable adjectives that carry a superlative/elevated comparative meaning. They agree like any normal adjective (gender, number, case):

Form	Meaning
лу́чший	best / better
ху́дший	worst / worse
ста́рший	elder, senior (eldest)
мла́дший	younger, junior (youngest)

These are the words for "my best friend," "the elder brother," "the junior manager." Because they decline, they sit in front of the noun like ordinary adjectives:

Э́то мой лу́чший друг ещё со шко́лы.

This is my best friend, from way back in school. — лу́чший agrees with друг (masc.).

Ста́ршая дочь поступи́ла в университе́т.

The elder daughter got into university. — ста́ршая, fem. nom.

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лу́чший and ста́рший do double duty — they can mean "better/elder" (comparative) or "best/eldest" (superlative), and context decides. лу́чший друг is "best friend"; в лу́чшем слу́чае is "in the better/best case." Don't expect a separate form for each.

How this differs from English

English also has suppletive comparatives — good/better/best, bad/worse/worst — so the idea is familiar. Two things are different. First, the Russian simple comparative (лу́чше, ху́же, бо́льше) is indeclinable: one frozen word for every gender, number and case, used mainly as a predicate. English doesn't have this "frozen word" category; we'd say "better" attributively (the better option) and predicatively (this is better) with the same form, but Russian splits the jobs — indeclinable лу́чше for the predicate, declinable лу́чший for the attribute. Second, Russian forces meaning-based choices English doesn't: ста́рше vs старе́е (people vs things), and far more comparatives are tangled up with consonant mutations than English's tiny irregular set.

Common Mistakes

❌ Он бо́лее хоро́ший спортсме́н, чем я.

Don't compound a word that has a one-word comparative — use the predicate лу́чше for a 'than'-comparison, not бо́лее хоро́ший.

✅ Он как спортсме́н лу́чше меня́.

As a sportsman he's better than me. — the indeclinable лу́чше carries the comparison; the genitive меня́ replaces 'than me'.

❌ Моя́ сестра́ старе́е меня́.

старе́е is for things; for a person's age use ста́рше.

✅ Моя́ сестра́ ста́рше меня́.

My sister is older than me.

❌ Э́тот телефо́н дорогее того́.

до́рого has the irregular mutation comparative доро́же (г → ж), not regular *дорогее.

✅ Э́тот телефо́н доро́же того́.

This phone is more expensive than that one.

❌ Здесь намно́го тихее.

ти́хий mutates to ти́ше (х → ш); there is no *тихее.

✅ Здесь намно́го ти́ше.

It's much quieter here.

❌ мой бо́льше друг

The indeclinable бо́льше can't sit attributively before a noun; for 'best/elder friend' use a declinable adjective.

✅ мой лу́чший друг

my best friend

Key Takeaways

The most frequent comparatives are irregular and must be memorised — there's no deriving them.
Suppletive: хоро́ший → лу́чше, плохо́й → ху́же, большо́й → бо́льше, ма́ленький → ме́ньше.
Many take -е with a consonant mutation: г→ж (доро́же), к→ч (гро́мче), х→ш (ти́ше), д→ж (моло́же), ст→щ (ча́ще). ле́гче is doubly irregular.
Some split by meaning: ста́рше (people's age) vs старе́е (things' age).
The prefix по- softens any comparative to "a bit": полу́чше, побо́льше, пора́ньше.
лу́чший, ху́дший, ста́рший, мла́дший are declinable suppletive adjectives ("best/worst/eldest/youngest") — they agree and sit before the noun.

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