Language/French/Grammar/Well-Better-Worse

bien 'well', mieux 'better', mal 'badly', pis 'worse'

One adverb in French has special comparative and superlative forms:

• bien

well

• mieux

better

• moins bien

less well

• le mieux

the best

• le moins bien

the least well

Elle chante	bien
	mieux
	moins bien
	le mieux
	le moins bien
She sings	well
	better
	less well
	the best
	the least well

The adverb mal 'badly' has two sets of comparative and superlative forms, one regular and one irregular:

Regular
French	English
mal	badly
plus mal	worse
moins mal	less badly
le plus mal	the worst
le moins mal	the least badly
Irregular
French	English
pis	worse
le pis	the worst

pis and le pis only occur these days in fixed expressions like:

French	English
tant pis	too bad
Les choses vont de mal en pis (or de pis en pis)	Things are going from bad to worse
qui pis est, . . .	what's worse, . . .
au pis aller	if the worse comes to the worst
en mettant tout au pis, . . .	at the worst, . . .

Pire or Pis?

Pire and Pis, two words that are often problematic, yet they do not have the same nature.

• Pire is the comparison of the superiority of the adjective 'mauvais', so it must be used as an adjective.

• • Le climat n'est pas pire qu'il y a deux jours.

• Pis is the comparative superiority of the adverb 'mal', it is therefore an adverb.

• • La situation va de mal en pis.

A little tip to avoid confusing them:

Pire can be replaced by Meilleur.

• • La situation était pire ===> la situation était meilleure .

Sources

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_sfx1PwUcHg&t=176s
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YW2TuJDWmfc
• https://www.francaisfacile.com/exercices/exercice-francais-2/exercice-francais-17093.php