Comparative and Superlative Constructions
Inequality is expressed using comparative constructions: ‘Jason is taller than Chester,' ‘Lily is more/less liberal than Amy,' while equality is expressed using comparative constructions: ‘Nick is as tall/liberal as Jason.'

Superlative constructions establish limits: ‘Jason is the tallest/most liberal’. In Spanish the corresponding words are: mas ‘more’, menos ‘less’, tan‘as’, tanto/a/os/as ‘as much/many’, and the link words que, de and como.

The basic pattern
The basic pattern for expressions of inequality involves mas/menos + adjective/ adverb + que. For equality it is tan + adjective/adverb + como:

EXAMPLE
Pedro es más/menos alto que Luis.	Pedro is taller/shorter than Luis.
Pedro es tan alto como Luis.	Pedro is as tall as Luis.
Pedro conduce más/menos despacio que Luis.	Pedro drives more/less slowly than Luis.
Pedro conduce tan despacio como Luis.	Pedro drives as slowly as Luis.

  Irregular comparatives
Single-word comparative forms are available for the following adjectives and adverbs:

IRREGULAR COMPERATIVES
ADJECTIVES		ADVERBS
bueno - good	mejor - better	bien - well	mejor - better
grande - big	grande - big, older	mal - badly	peor - worse
malo - bad	peor - worse
pequeño - small	menor - lesser, younger

The adjectives are invariable for gender but have plurals in -es. The adverbs are invariable:

EXAMPLE
Mi bicicleta es mejor que la tuya.	My bike is better than yours.
Estos niños son menores que los míos.	These children are younger than mine.
Cantan mejor que yo.	They sing better than me.

The regular forms mas bueno/mas bien, and mas malo/mas mal are usually replaced in comparative constructions by mejor and peor.

  Mayor and menor compared with más grande and más pequeño
Mas grande and mas pequeno are used above all to indicate physical size:

EXAMPLE
Mi casa es más grande/pequeña que la tuya.	My house is bigger/smaller than yours.

Mayor and menor are used to refer to age:

EXAMPLE
Pedro es mayor/menor que Luis.	Pedro is older/younger than Luis.
una persona mayor	an elderly person

  Comparisons of inequality involving nouns
For comparisons of inequality expressing ‘more than’ and ‘less/fewer than’, the pattern is the same as for adjectives, mas/menos + noun + que:

EXAMPLE
Pedro comió más/menos patatas que tú.	Pedro ate more/fewer potatoes than you.
Hace más calor en Sevilla que en Madrid.	It’s hotter in Seville than in Madrid.

When the word mucho is used in comparisons involving nouns it agrees with its associated noun:

EXAMPLE
Comió muchas más patatas que tú.	He ate many more potatoes than you.
mucha menos velocidad	much less speed

  Comparisons involving verbs
With comparisons of equality, expressing ‘as much/many . . . as’, the pattern is tanto/a/os/as . . . como:

EXAMPLE
Pedro tiene tantas camisas como Luis.	Pedro has as many shirts as Luis.
No hace tanto calor en Cantabria.	It isn’t so hot in Cantabria.

  Comparisons involving verbs
With comparisons of inequality relating to the action of a verb, the pattern is verb + mas/menos + que:

EXAMPLE
Susana trabaja más/menos que tú.	Susana works more/less than you.

In comparisons of equality, the pattern is verb + tanto (in this case invariable) + como:

EXAMPLE
Susana trabaja tanto como tú.	Susana works as much as you.

  Uses of de after más and menos
'De' must replace 'que' as the link word meaning ‘than’ after más or menos in comparisons that state ‘more’ or ‘less’ than a number or numerical expression (such as ‘half’, ‘dozen’), or before other words that imply an amount or quantity:

EXAMPLE
No vengas más tarde de las ocho.	Don’t come any later thaneight o’clock.
Murieron menos de la mitad de los pasajeros.	Fewer than half the passengers died.
Vino menos gente de la esperada.	Fewer people than expected came.