Breakdown of Su sueldo es muy superior al mío.
ser
to be
muy
very
su
his / her / their / your (formal)
al
to the (m)
el sueldo
the salary
mío
mine / of mine
superior
superior
Questions & Answers about Su sueldo es muy superior al mío.
Why does the sentence use al mío instead of que el mío for the comparison?
While most comparatives in Spanish use que (like más alto que), words of Latin comparative origin ending in -ior, such as superior, inferior, anterior, and posterior, require the preposition a. Because mío needs the definite article el here to mean mine, a and el combine to form the contraction al.
Why do we use muy instead of mucho before the comparative superior?
This is a great exception to notice. With irregular comparatives like mayor, menor, mejor, and peor, you must use mucho to say much (for example, mucho mejor). However, superior and inferior function more like regular adjectives in this respect, so they take muy to mean much or very.
Does mío change to match the gender of the speaker or the object?
How do we know su means her in this context?
In isolation, we actually don't. The possessive adjective su could mean his, her, its, their, or your (formal). The translation says her based on an assumed wider context. If you needed to clarify her salary out of the blue without previous context, you could say el sueldo de ella.
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