Irregular Comparatives and Superlatives
Five of the most common adjectives use completely different stems for their comparative and superlative forms:
| Positive | Comparative | Superlative |
| bonus good |
melior better |
optimus best / very good |
| malus bad |
peior worse |
pessimus worst / very bad |
| magnus great |
maior greater |
maximus greatest / very great |
| parvus small |
minor smaller |
minimus smallest / very small |
| multus much |
plus* more |
plurimus most / very much |
*the singular plus does not decline and is followed by the genitive (e.g. plus pecuniae = “more money”). The plural is plures, which declines like other comparative adjectives (e.g. pluribus armis oppugnavimus = “we attacked with more weapons”).
Note that these are also the adjectives which should be placed before the noun, whereas other adjectives should come after the noun.
