In the twenty-ninth class of the Latin from Scratch course, we’ll study the syntax of the comparison structures and the morphology of comparative adjectives.
Contents
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Syntactic structures of comparison
There are three types of comparison:
- superiority: magis … quam “more … than” or “Xer than”
- equality: tam … quam “as … as”
- inferiority: minus … quam “less … than”
The most frequent comparison is superiority, which can also be expressed in an alternative way: plus … quam.
In all three structures, the adjective before quam and the word after minus, tam or magis are in the same case (*also the noun after quam):
Antonius minus/tam/magis altus quam Petrus est.
Antony is less/as tall / taller than/as Peter.
Dedi tibi donum minus/tam/magis dulce quam mellem.
I gave you a gift less/as sweet / sweeter than/as honey.
About the noun after quam (term of comparison, or second part of the comparison), it is actually more frequent to use the ablative without quam. However, this can only be used when the word being compared is in the nominative or accusative.
Antonius minus/tam/magis altus Petro est.
Dedi tibi donum minus/tam/magis dulce melle.
Morphology of synthetic comparative adjectives
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Only the superiority comparative form admits a synthetic form (i.e. in one word, as in English tall → taller). This is the preferred form in classical Latin. It is formed in the following way:
- root of the adjective
- suffix ‑ior (masculine and feminine) or ‑ius (neuter)
Regardless of the original declension of the adjective, these superiority comparatives are always declined according to the 3rd declension consonant-stem.
Antonius altior {quam Petrus / Petro} est.
Dedi tibi donum dulcius {quam mellem / melle}.
Puellae pulchriores {quam pueri / pueris} sunt.
The synthetic superiority comparative is the preferred form in classical Latin, but they have a limitation: the adjectives whose root end in a vowel cannot be formed in such way. For example, from caeruleus we couldn’t form *caeruleior, but the analytic form magis caeruleus.
Irregular comparatives
There are a few adjectives whose comparative form is irregular:
- bonus, bona, bonum → melior, melius
- malus, mala, malum → peior, peius
- magnus, magna, magnum → maior, maius
- parvus, parva, parvum → minor, minus
- multus, multa, multum → plures, plura
Intensive comparative use
Although this is a syntactic matter, it seems more intuitive to have it last, since it is not a very frequent use of the comparative.
The forms in -ior or -ius may be used as intensive comparative adjectives when there is no term of comparison (and it is not obvious from the context). In these cases we can translate as quite, too, very, etc., depending on the context.
Antonius altior est.
Antony is quite tall.
After the comparative degree, let’s study the superlative degree of adjectives.
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