Comparatives and Superlatives

01

Comparative: Adjective + 'ជាង'

Put ជាង (ciəngcieng) straight after the adjective, then name the thing compared against.

• ឡាននេះល្អជាងឡាននោះ

  laan nih lʼɑɑ ciəng laan nuhlaan nih laa cieng laan nuh

  This car is better than that car.

• ប្រទេសបារាំងតូចជាងប្រទេសរុស្សី

  prɑteih baarang touc ciəng prɑteih ruhsəyprateih baarang touc cieng prateih ruhsey

  France is smaller than Russia.

02

Superlative: Adjective + 'បំផុត'

បំផុត (bɑmphotbamphot) after the adjective means "the most …".

• វាល្អបំផុត

  viə lʼɑɑ bɑmphotvie laa bamphot

  It is the best.

• នេះថោកបំផុត

  nih thaok bɑmphotnih thaok bamphot

  This is the cheapest.

03

'More Than All' with 'ជាងគេ'

A very common way to say "the most" is ជាងគេ (ciəng keicieng kei) — literally "more than everyone/everything else". It works just like ជាង (ciəngcieng) plus a compared item, except the item is គេ (kei), "everyone/everything".

• ទីបួនគឺតូចជាងគេ

  tii buən kɨɨ touc ciəng keitii buen kuu touc cieng kei

  The fourth is the smallest of all.

04

Dropping the Compared Item

When the thing compared against is obvious from context, it can be dropped entirely, leaving just adjective + ជាង (ciəngcieng):

• ផ្ទះនេះធំជាង

  phtĕəh nih thom ciəngphteeh nih thom cieng

  This house is bigger.

A common middle ground is to keep ជាង (ciəngcieng) but point back at what was just said with នេះ (nih), "this": ជាងនេះ (ciəng nihcieng nih) means "…than this".

• ខ្ញុំសង្ឃឹមថាអ្នកសន្សំសំចៃជាងនេះ

  khñom sɑngkhɨm thaa nĕək sɑɑnsɑmsɑmcay ciəng nihkhnom sangkhum thaa neek saansamsamcay cieng nih

  I hope you're more frugal than this.