Breakdown of Der Tiger ist schwerer als der Wolf.
sein
to be
schwer
heavy / severe, serious
als
than
der Tiger
the tiger
der Wolf
the wolf
Questions & Answers about Der Tiger ist schwerer als der Wolf.
Why do we use als here instead of wie?
We use als because this is an unequal comparison. Whenever you use a comparative adjective ending in -er like schwerer, you must use als, which translates to 'than'. You would only use wie if the animals were equally heavy, using the phrase so schwer wie.
How do we form the comparative word schwerer?
Just like in English, you add -er to the base adjective. schwer means heavy, so schwerer means heavier. Notice that unlike some other common adjectives like alt which changes to älter, schwer does not get an umlaut over its vowel.
Why is it der Wolf and not den Wolf at the end of the sentence?
When comparing two things with als, the second noun takes the exact same case as the first one. Because Der Tiger is the subject of the sentence in the nominative case, der Wolf must also stay in the nominative case.
Could I say Der Tiger ist mehr schwer als der Wolf?
No, German rarely uses the word mehr to form comparisons. Unlike English which uses 'more' for longer words, German almost always just adds -er to the end of the adjective, no matter how long the word is.
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