Irregular Comparatives

Spanish has four adjectives that form their comparative forms irregularly. Instead of combining más with the base adjective, they use special dedicated words. These irregular comparatives are extremely common, so you cannot avoid them in everyday speech.

The Four Irregular Comparatives

The four adjectives with irregular comparative forms are bueno, malo, grande, and pequeño. Each has a single comparative form used for both masculine and feminine, with a plural ending in -es.

Mejor and Peor

Mejor replaces más bueno, and peor replaces más malo. Saying más bueno que in the sense of "better than" sounds childlike or incorrect, so you should always reach for the irregular form instead.

Both forms precede the noun when used attributively, like most comparative expressions.

Mayor and Menor for Age

The most frequent use of mayor and menor is to compare ages. In this sense, mayor means "older" and menor means "younger," and they are preferred over más grande or más pequeño when talking about people.

When you are comparing physical size instead of age, Latin American Spanish usually prefers the regular más grande or más pequeño.

The Exception: Moral Goodness

There is one important situation where más bueno and más malo are acceptable and even preferred: when talking about personality or moral character. In this context, más bueno means "kinder" or "nicer," not "better at something."

Mayor and Menor Beyond Age

Mayor and menor can also mean "greater" and "lesser" in abstract contexts, especially when discussing quantities, importance, or degree. This usage is common in formal and written Spanish.