Comparing: More, Less, the Most

For equality Hebrew needs only כְּמוֹ (like, as) after the adjective; there is no “as … as”. הוּא גָּבוֹהַּ כְּמוֹ אַבָּא שֶׁלּוֹ means he is as tall as his father. Put לֹא in front for “not as … as”, and say בְּדִיּוּק כְּמוֹ for “exactly like”.

For identity and difference use אוֹתוֹ (the same), שׁוֹנֶה מִ־ (different from) and דּוֹמֶה לְ־ (similar to, looks like). These three agree like adjectives; כְּמוֹ never changes.

For “the most” or “-est”, put הֲכִי in front of the adjective: הֲכִי גָּדוֹל is the biggest, הֲכִי טוֹב the best. הֲכִי never changes; the adjective agrees as always.

Here the “הַ on both” rule from the adjectives lesson does not apply: with a definite noun, only the noun takes הַ, and the adjective after הֲכִי does not: הַבַּיִת הֲכִי גָּדוֹל. To say where or out of whom, add בְּ־ (בַּכִּתָּה, in the class) or מִכֻּלָּם (of all).

Often you are not comparing with anything, you are just saying how much: a bit cold, quite easy, very tasty, too expensive. Hebrew has a short scale of degree words for this, and none of them change for gender or number.

Most of them go before the adjective. מְאוֹד traditionally comes after it (טָעִים מְאוֹד), but in speech you hear מְאוֹד טָעִים just as often.

To compare how people do things, put יוֹתֵר, פָּחוֹת or הֲכִי before an adverb such as מַהֵר (fast), לְאַט (slowly) or טוֹב (well): הוּא רָץ יוֹתֵר מַהֵר מִמֶּנִּי. To compare how much, use יוֹתֵר or פָּחוֹת alone after the verb: אֲנִי עוֹבֵד יוֹתֵר.

Adverbs never agree: a man, a woman and a whole team all run מַהֵר. Don't swap in the adjective מָהִיר / מְהִירָה, which describes a thing: מְכוֹנִית מְהִירָה, a fast car.