How do you form the comparative and superlative in Hungarian?

The Hungarian comparative is -bb: added straight to a vowel (drága → drágább, "more expensive") and with a linking vowel after a consonant (fiatal → fiatalabb, öreg → öregebb). The superlative is leg- in front of the comparative: legnagyobb, "biggest". A dozen everyday adjectives bend the rule (jó → jobb, sok → több), and "than" has two forms that are not always interchangeable. All of it is on this page.

The comparative: -bb, -abb, -ebb

The ending is chosen by the last sound of the adjective and, after a consonant, by vowel harmony:

Two things in this table differ from the plural, and they are where learners trip. First, the comparative has no rounded -öbb: zöld gives zöldebb, not *zöldöbb. Second, -obb is not a regular back-vowel option the way -ok is in the plural. Wiktionary's usage note for -bb gives nagy → nagyobb as its only -obb example, and every other back-vowel adjective checked for this page takes -abb, including boldog → boldogabb and gazdag → gazdagabb, where the plural has -ok (boldogok). So for a consonant-final adjective the working rule is: -abb for back words, -ebb for front words, and remember nagyobb.

The comparative behaves like any adjective afterwards. As a predicate with a plural subject it takes the plural (A házak nagyobbak. "The houses are bigger."), and used as a noun it takes case endings with the lowered linking vowel: a nagyobbat ("the bigger one", as object), a szebbet.

The irregular comparatives in one table

Every form below was checked against its Wiktionary entry. The irregulars are not random: they fall into four groups, and three of them repeat stem changes you already know from nouns (see how Hungarian words are built).

• Shortening: Singer's 1882 grammar notes that ó shortens only in jó. Every other -ó adjective keeps its vowel: olcsóbb, apróbb.
• The -ú/-ű split is the group to learn as a list. hosszú, lassú, ifjú, könnyű lose the vowel and take -abb/-ebb; szomorú, savanyú, keserű, gyönyörű keep it and take plain -bb. Wiktionary records both forms for szörnyű (szörnyűbb or szörnyebb) and lists lassúbb as a second form beside lassabb. There is no *hosszúbb.
• Noun-type changes: bátor → bátrabb drops a vowel like bokor → bokrok; nehéz → nehezebb shortens like kéz → kezek; bő → bővebb uses a v-stem like kő → kövek. hű (faithful) has both hűbb and the v-stem hívebb.
• Different stem: kisebb is built on kis, the form of "small" used before a noun (egy kis ház). *kicsibb does not exist.

Once you have the comparative, the superlative is never irregular. Singer says the same: after listing the odd comparatives, "the superlative is formed regularly."

The superlative: leg- + comparative

Put leg- in front of the comparative, written as one word. The -bb stays: Hungarian marks the superlative at both ends, so Wiktionary describes leg-...-bb as working like a circumfix.

• zöld → zöldebb → legzöldebb green, greener, greenest
• Ez a legnagyobb szoba. This is the biggest room.
• Anna a legfiatalabb a családban. Anna is the youngest in the family.
• Mindenütt jó, de legjobb otthon. It's good everywhere, but best at home. (proverb)

A superlative before a noun normally takes the definite article, as in English: a legjobb barátom, "my best friend".

Leg- without -bb: legfelső, legelső

A small set of position adjectives forms the superlative straight from the base form: felső → legfelső (topmost), belső → legbelső (innermost), and also legalsó, legkülső, legszélső, legelső, legutolsó, leghátsó. Some also have a -bb form with a different sense: a legfelsőbb bíróság is the Supreme Court, not the court on the top floor.

Legesleg-: "the very best"

For emphasis, add leges- in front of the finished superlative: legjobb → legeslegjobb ("the very best"), legzöldebb → legeslegzöldebb. Singer's 1882 grammar describes the same form as the superlative rendered with "very" in English. Some learner sites write legesjobb, replacing leg-; Wiktionary has an entry for legeslegjobb and none for legesjobb. Keep the leg-.

"Than": -nál/-nél or mint

Hungarian has two ways to say "than", and both are standard. The case ending -nál/-nél goes on the thing compared; the conjunction mint stands before it, usually after a comma.

• Péter magasabb Annánál. Péter is taller than Anna.
• Péter magasabb, mint Anna. Péter is taller than Anna.
• Ez a szám nagyobb a másiknál. This number is bigger than the other.
• A kastély nagyobb, mint a kutyaház. The castle is bigger than the dog-house.

The choice is not a matter of taste once the sentence gets more complex. Use this order:

1. Is the compared thing a plain noun or pronoun, with no case ending of its own? Either works. With pronouns -nál is the more natural: nagyobb nálam, okosabb nálad. With mint the pronoun stays in the nominative: nagyobb, mint én.
2. Would the compared word need a case ending anyway? Use mint, and give the word after it the same case it would have in its own sentence: Annával többet beszéltem, mint Péterrel. "I talked more with Anna than with Péter." -nál cannot be stacked on Péterrel.
3. Is it a time word, an adverb or a whole clause? Only mint: Ma melegebb van, mint tegnap. "It's warmer today than yesterday." Jobban főz, mint gondoltam. "He cooks better than I thought."

The full treatment of -nál/-nél, including its main meaning "at, by", is in the proximity cases. The size of the difference goes in the instrumental: két évvel idősebb nálam ("two years older than me"), sokkal jobb ("much better"); see -val/-vel. And "the more ... the more" uses -nál/-nél on question and pointing words: Minél több, annál jobb. "The more, the better."

Comparing adverbs: jobban, legjobban

Adverbs in -an/-en put -bb before the adverb ending: gyorsan → gyorsabban → leggyorsabban, szépen → szebben → legszebben. Adverbs that already end in -n work the same way: gyakran → gyakrabban, korán → korábban. A few take -bb directly: hamar → hamarabb, messze → messzebb.

The second meaning of jobban is the one English speakers miss. It means "more" with verbs of liking and feeling, not only "better": Mindennél jobban szeretlek. "I love you more than anything." Legjobban a kávét szeretem. "I like coffee most." For "less", use kevésbé with the base adjective: kevésbé drága, "less expensive". The -ul/-ül adverb ending is covered in the minor cases.

The "fairly X" comparative: egy idősebb úr

A comparative with nothing to compare against does not mean "more". Wiktionary's usage note puts it precisely: nagyobb can mean "somewhat large", "fairly large", "largish", "a little on the large side", but not truly large. It calls this the absolute sense of the comparative.

• Egy idősebb úr ült mellettem. An elderly gentleman was sitting next to me.
• Egy nagyobb városban lakik. She lives in a fairly large town.
• Több ember panaszkodott. Several people complained.

The trap: the absolute comparative is weaker than the base adjective. egy idős úr is an old man; egy idősebb úr is a man getting on in years, not yet truly old. For több this meaning is fixed in the dictionary: Wiktionary glosses it as "several, multiple (though not many)". So több ember without a mint or -nál is "several people", not "more people". As with all quantity words, the noun after több stays singular.

Typical learner errors

1. *jóbb, *szépebb, *sokabb, *kicsibb → jobb, szebb, több, kisebb.
2. *hosszúbb, *könnyűbb → hosszabb, könnyebb; but szomorúbb is correct.
3. *boldogobb, *zöldöbb → boldogabb, zöldebb. Of the everyday adjectives, only nagy takes -obb.
4. *legnagy → legnagyobb: the superlative keeps -bb.
5. *Péterrelnél, or mint Péter where the sentence needs "with Péter" → mint Péterrel.
6. *tegnapnál melegebb for "warmer than yesterday" → melegebb, mint tegnap.
7. Reading egy idősebb hölgy as "an older lady" (than whom?). It means "an elderly lady".

More errors of this kind are collected in common mistakes in Hungarian.

Where these rules stop applying

• Old texts. Singer's 1882 grammar accepts a bare -b after some consonants (magasb for magasabb). Wiktionary marks this variant archaic; the only form you will meet is a fixed relic such as idősb ("senior", as in the abbreviation id. before a father's name).
• Dialects. Wiktionary lists -tól/-től as a dialectal "than". Standard Hungarian uses -nál/-nél.
• Double forms. For lassú, szörnyű, hű both forms exist. The table gives the one Wiktionary lists first.

Sources and further reading

• Wiktionary, "-bb" (Hungarian), usage notes on the variants -b, -bb, -abb, -obb, -ebb and the absolute sense of the comparative
• Wiktionary, "leg-" and "leges-" (Hungarian), on superlatives without -bb and the one-word spelling of phrase superlatives
• Wiktionary entries for jó, több, kicsi, lassú, szörnyű, jobban, mint and -nál, for the comparative forms in the tables and the "than" examples
• Ignácz Singer, Simplified Grammar of the Hungarian Language (1882), chapter on adjectives, for leg-/legesleg- and the historical irregulars

Frequently asked questions