Four common Spanish adjectives have synthetic comparatives — single words that replace the regular más + adjective construction. Bueno → mejor, malo → peor, grande → mayor, pequeño → menor. These are leftovers from Latin (melior, peior, maior, minor) that survived into modern Spanish exactly because the four words they descend from are so frequent that a shorter, irregular form was worth keeping. The rule isn't that these forms are optional — mejor and peor are essentially mandatory — but the size pair (mayor / menor) splits its territory with más grande / más pequeño, and knowing which to reach for is a real A2-B1 challenge.
The four-word table
| Adjective | Meaning | Irregular comparative | Plural |
|---|---|---|---|
| bueno | good | mejor (better) | mejores |
| malo | bad | peor (worse) | peores |
| grande | big / old | mayor (greater / older) | mayores |
| pequeño | small / young | menor (lesser / younger) | menores |
A few observations to anchor the rest of the page:
- All four forms are invariable for gender — mejor covers masculine and feminine alike. They do mark number (mejores, peores, mayores, menores).
- Two of them — mejor and peor — also work as adverbs without changing form (canta mejor, te encuentras peor hoy).
- The size pair (mayor / menor) has split duties. They cover age and abstract magnitude reliably; for physical size they share the field with más grande / más pequeño.
Mejor / peor: quality
For quality — good or bad food, films, ideas, performances, results — Spanish prefers mejor and peor to más bueno / más malo. The longer forms exist (we'll get to más bueno que el pan below) but for evaluating quality they sound wrong.
Este café es mucho mejor que el de la otra cafetería.
This coffee is much better than the one at the other café.
La segunda parte de la peli es peor que la primera.
The second half of the film is worse than the first.
He tenido peores días, no te preocupes.
I've had worse days — don't worry about it.
Notice the plural in the third example: peores días. Plural agreement applies, but no gender change — peores películas, peores días, both peores.
Mejor and peor as adverbs
A point that English speakers often miss: mejor and peor double as adverbs, where English uses better and worse. There is no separate adverbial form like ❌mejormente.
Mi hermana canta mejor que yo, pero yo bailo mejor que ella.
My sister sings better than I do, but I dance better than she does.
Hoy me encuentro peor que ayer; creo que voy a llamar al médico.
I feel worse today than yesterday; I think I'll call the doctor.
When mejor and peor modify a verb, they're adverbs; when they modify a noun, they're adjectives. The form is the same; the function shifts.
A useful frame: cada vez mejor / peor
A construction worth memorising as a chunk: cada vez mejor and cada vez peor mean better and better / worse and worse. It does the job that English does with reduplication.
Tu español va cada vez mejor — se te nota mucho.
Your Spanish is getting better and better — it really shows.
El servicio en ese restaurante está cada vez peor.
The service at that restaurant is getting worse and worse.
The pattern extends: cada vez más caro (more and more expensive), cada vez menos gente (fewer and fewer people). It's idiomatic and ubiquitous in Spain.
Mejor / peor as superlatives
With the definite article, mejor and peor become superlatives — el mejor, la peor, los mejores, las peores. The superlative page covers this in full, but a quick taste:
Es la mejor decisión que he tomado en mi vida.
It's the best decision I've made in my life.
Fue el peor invierno de los últimos diez años.
It was the worst winter in the last ten years.
Mayor / menor: age, abstract magnitude — and sometimes size
This is where the choice gets interesting. Mayor and menor have several distinct uses that learners need to keep apart.
Age — the most reliable case
For age, mayor and menor are the standard forms. Más viejo and más joven are also used, but in the family context — older or younger siblings, the oldest of a group of cousins, minors vs adults — mayor and menor dominate.
Mi hermano mayor se llama Javier y mi hermana menor, Lucía.
My older brother is called Javier and my younger sister, Lucía.
Soy la mayor de cuatro hermanos.
I'm the oldest of four siblings.
No pueden entrar los menores de dieciocho años.
People under eighteen can't go in.
That last frame, los menores de + age, is the standard legal expression for minors / people under X. Conversely, los mayores de edad are adults in the legal sense.
Abstract magnitude
For abstract quantities — importance, quantity in an elevated register, intensity, formal contexts — mayor and menor are the natural choice.
El proyecto requiere mayor inversión de la prevista.
The project requires greater investment than predicted.
Es un asunto de menor importancia; podemos dejarlo para mañana.
It's a matter of lesser importance; we can leave it for tomorrow.
Hay que prestar mayor atención a los detalles.
We need to pay greater attention to the details.
You'll see this everywhere in journalism, official documents, and academic writing: mayor número de casos, menor riesgo, mayor cantidad de información.
Physical size — más grande and más pequeño usually win
Here is the split that trips up most learners. For physical size of everyday objects — a bigger flat, a smaller car, a larger pizza — peninsular Spanish strongly prefers más grande and más pequeño. Using mayor or menor for these contexts sounds formal, abstract, or just off.
Mi piso nuevo es más grande que el anterior.
My new flat is bigger than the previous one.
Necesito una maleta más pequeña para el avión.
I need a smaller suitcase for the plane.
You can say un piso mayor or una maleta menor, but it will sound either bookish, archaic, or like you're talking about something more abstract than mere size. Mayor tends to slip in for non-physical "size" — a bigger problem, a greater opportunity:
Tenemos un problema mayor: se ha caído el servidor.
We have a bigger problem: the server has gone down.
Here un problema mayor feels right because the comparison is qualitative, not measurement.
Más bueno / más malo — the moral character exception
There is one well-known niche where más bueno and más malo — the would-be-banned regular forms — do appear: when describing a person's moral character rather than their quality at something.
Mi vecina es más buena que el pan, siempre ayuda a todo el mundo.
My neighbour is sweeter than bread — she always helps everyone.
Ese tío es más malo que la quina, no te fíes de él.
That guy is rotten to the core — don't trust him.
Más bueno que el pan (kinder than bread) and más malo que la quina (worse than quinine, i.e. evil) are fixed idioms about character. Outside these set expressions, learners are usually safest with mejor / peor. Using más bueno for skill ("more skilled at X") or más malo for quality ("of worse quality") will sound wrong.
Watch out: irregular comparative vs absolute superlative
A word about pésimo and óptimo — Latinate doublets you'll meet in formal writing. Pésimo is the absolute superlative of malo (= "terrible / dreadful"), not its comparative. Óptimo is the absolute superlative of bueno. So:
La calidad del aire hoy es pésima.
The air quality today is dreadful.
Es un momento óptimo para invertir.
It's an ideal moment to invest.
These are not interchangeable with peor and mejor. Pésimo says as bad as it gets; peor says worse than something. The same distinction holds for máximo / mínimo vs mayor / menor — máximo is maximum (top of the scale), mayor is greater (comparative).
Putting them all in motion
A short scene that uses all four:
Mi hermana mayor saca mejores notas que yo, pero mi hermano menor es el peor de la familia para los exámenes. Dice que con menor estrés sacaría mayor partido a su tiempo, y probablemente tiene razón.
My older sister gets better grades than I do, but my younger brother is the worst in the family at exams. He says that with less stress he'd get more out of his time, and he's probably right.
Notice mejores notas (plural agreement), el peor de la familia (superlative with article), menor estrés and mayor partido (abstract magnitude, formal register).
Common Mistakes
❌ Mi café es más mejor que el tuyo.
Wrong — never use 'más' with 'mejor' (or 'peor', 'mayor', 'menor'). The irregular form already carries the comparative meaning.
✅ Mi café es mejor que el tuyo.
My coffee is better than yours.
❌ Necesito un coche más mayor para la familia.
Wrong — 'mayor' here sounds formal/abstract; for physical size of a car, use 'más grande'.
✅ Necesito un coche más grande para la familia.
I need a bigger car for the family.
❌ El examen estuvo peor que pésimo.
Wrong — 'pésimo' is the absolute superlative ('terrible'), not part of a 'peor que' comparison.
✅ El examen estuvo peor de lo que esperaba — fue pésimo.
The exam was worse than I expected — it was awful.
❌ Mi hermana es más vieja que yo, tiene treinta años.
Marked — for family relations, peninsular Spanish prefers 'mayor' to 'más vieja'; the latter can sound rude about people.
✅ Mi hermana es mayor que yo, tiene treinta años.
My sister is older than I am — she's thirty.
❌ Esta película es más buena que la anterior.
Wrong — for the quality of a work (a film, a book, a record), peninsular Spanish uses 'mejor', not 'más buena'.
✅ Esta película es mejor que la anterior.
This film is better than the previous one.
Key takeaways
- Four comparatives are irregular: bueno → mejor, malo → peor, grande → mayor, pequeño → menor. All four are invariable for gender and pluralise as mejores / peores / mayores / menores.
- Mejor and peor are mandatory for quality — never say ❌más bueno / ❌más malo about a film, a coffee, a result. They also work as adverbs.
- Mayor and menor are mandatory for age (hermano mayor, menores de edad) and very natural for abstract magnitude (mayor importancia, menor riesgo).
- For everyday physical size, peninsular Spanish prefers más grande and más pequeño; mayor and menor in those contexts sound formal or off.
- Más bueno and más malo survive only in fixed idioms about moral character (más bueno que el pan, más malo que la quina).
- Don't confuse peor / mejor / mayor / menor (comparatives — worse / better / greater / lesser) with pésimo / óptimo / máximo / mínimo (absolute superlatives — the worst / the best / the maximum / the minimum).
Now practice Spanish
Reading grammar gets you part of the way. The exercises are where it sticks — free, no signup needed.
Start learning Spanish→Related Topics
- Comparaciones de desigualdad: 'más/menos...que'A1 — Spanish builds comparisons of inequality with 'más' or 'menos' before an adjective, adverb, or noun and 'que' before the second term — switching to 'de' before a number.
- Superlativos: el más altoA2 — Spanish builds superlatives with 'el/la/los/las + más/menos + adjective + de' for relative ('the tallest in the class') and with '-ísimo' or 'muy' for absolute ('extremely tall').
- Comparativos complejos: más/menos…que el queB2 — Advanced Spanish comparison: comparatives with relative clauses (más alto que el que vimos), the de/que split with numbers (más de cinco), de lo que with embedded clauses, and full superlatives.
- Cuanto más…más: comparativo correlativoB2 — The correlative 'cuanto más… más…' construction pairs two parallel comparatives ('the more X, the more Y'), with cuanto agreeing with any noun it modifies and indicative/subjunctive choice depending on generality vs hypothesis.