Breakdown of El libro es mejor que la película.
ser
to be
el libro
the book
la película
the movie
que
than (in comparisons)
Questions & Answers about El libro es mejor que la película.
Why do we use mejor instead of más bueno here?
Just like in English we say better instead of more good, Spanish has irregular comparative adjectives. Mejor is the irregular comparative form of bueno (good).
Does mejor need to change its ending to match the noun it describes?
Why is the word for than translated as que here?
In Spanish, when you are comparing two nouns directly to say one is better, worse, more, or less than the other, you use que for than. Notice it does not have an accent mark here, unlike the question word qué (what).