Hopefully, your Dutch speaking skills are already fairly great when you’re reading this post. But couldn’t they get even greater? Or perhaps, eventually, the greatest of them all? Dutch uses degrees of comparison, or trappen van vergelijking, like these, too, and the rules are fairly similar to those in English – although we wouldn’t be us if we hadn’t come up with a few exceptions. Here’s how they work.
Trappen van vergelijking
Degrees of comparison are called trappen van vergelijking in Dutch – this literally means stairs/steps of comparison. Many languages use them, and I’m happy to let you know that the Dutch rules are very similar to the ones in English, albeit with a few added twists.
The main rule that’s used for the bulk of words is almost exactly like the one in English: use -er for the comparative, and -st for the superlative (English uses -est, but close enough). This will lead to the following list, mooi meaning beautiful:
positive: mooi
comparative: mooier
superlative: mooist
This is also the case for loan words from English, which will look very much the same, only lacking the extra e in the superlative:
cool
cooler
coolst
So far, so good. When our basic pronunciation rules for double vowels come into play (I’ve talked about this in the post about verb conjugation), sometimes, one of the vowels may disappear. This happens when it’s not absolutely necessary to keep it for pronunciation purposes, like in groot (Eng: great/big):
groot
groter
grootst
Here, groter is pronounced exactly like grooter would be pronounced (in Dutch, obviously – it has nothing to do with the tree guy from Guardians of the Galaxy), which means we don’t need the extra o in this instance, and we quickly get rid of it. We do need it in the other two versions, so we keep it. Annoying, yet simple.
When needed for pronunciation, the last consonant can also be doubled, like in dumb:
dom
dommer
domst
These aren’t necessarily exceptions to the -er/-st rule, they’re merely ways to solve pronunciation issues, and they occur in verb conjugation and plurals too. However, there are some actual exceptions.
Exceptions
Sometimes, the last consonant is changed. The rules for this are fairly ambiguous, but it mainly happens with v/f and s/z, for example in our word for sweet:
lief
liever
liefst
While liever does differ slightly from how liefer would be pronounced, there’s no real need for this change in pronunciation, so it’s kind of an odd one – don’t worry, though, it gets even weirder (or more weird?).
When a word ends in -r, we usually add a -d to the second step (but not to the third), like in dark:
donker
donkerder
donkerst
When a words ends in a schwa (which we hilariously call a stomme e or stupid e), the comparative doesn’t get an extra -e added, just an r, but the superlative usually gets our version of most, like in timid:
timide
timider
meest timide
Which brings us to the next set that English speakers will also be familiar with:
Meer/meest
Just like in English, you’re sometimes free to use meer/meest (Eng: more/most) when words are long, or get awkward to read or pronounce. While this happens way oftener – kidding, way more often in English, it does occur in Dutch, too, and it’s basically a matter of do as you please, like in problematic:
problematisch
meer problematisch
meest problematisch
In some cases, the most version is the only generally accepted version, but there’s no hard rule for when this is the case. There are also some slightly different ways of using most in the superlative, for example when you really want to stress something is really the most of something.
In fact, probably due to the ever-growing influence of English on our language, Dutchies are using meer/meest a lot more than we used to, even when it’s not absolutely necessary to do so. We could even call this the Second English disease, after the original one I mentioned in the post about compound words. Some people find it easier, others find it very ugly – personally, I think it’s a little bit of both.
Irregular degrees of comparison
Just like English, Dutch has a few irregular degrees of comparison, and just like irregular verbs, the only option is to learn them by heart. Some examples:
goed – beter – best (Eng: good – better – best)(not at all unsimilar, are they?)
weinig – minder – minst (Eng: little – less – least)
veel – meer – meest (Eng: much – more – most)
There aren’t a whole lot of these, but the irregular ones tend to be used a lot, so it’s a good idea to know which ones they are, especially the three mentioned here.
Longest story shortest
The basics of degrees of comparison in Dutch work more or less the same as they do in English: -er for the comparative, and -st for the superlative – we just lost the extra e. However, there are quite a few exceptions to these basic rules, and on top of that, the words themselves may change for pronunciation reasons, not to mention the existence of a few irregular ones.
Still, for most adjectives, simpler is better. When the word gets annoyingly hard to pronounce, you’re free to use more/most, but most of the time, there’s just no need for it. For now, I hope you had the mostest pleasure reading this post, and you’re welcomest to read some of the other ones, too!
