Difference between revisions of "Language/French/Grammar/Well-Better-Worse"
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<div style="font-size:300%">bien 'well', mieux 'better', mal 'badly', pis 'worse'</div> | <div style="font-size:300%">bien 'well', mieux 'better', mal 'badly', pis 'worse'</div> | ||
One adverb in French has special comparative and superlative forms: | One adverb in French has special comparative and superlative forms: | ||
*bien | *bien | ||
well | <blockquote>well</blockquote> | ||
*mieux | *mieux | ||
better | <blockquote>better</blockquote> | ||
*moins bien | *moins bien | ||
less well | <blockquote>less well</blockquote> | ||
*le mieux | *le mieux | ||
the best | <blockquote>the best</blockquote> | ||
*le moins bien | *le moins bien | ||
the least well | <blockquote>the least well</blockquote> | ||
{| class="wikitable" | {| class="wikitable" | ||
| Line 50: | Line 52: | ||
{| class="wikitable" | {| class="wikitable" | ||
! colspan="2" |Regular | |||
|- | |- | ||
!French | |||
!English | |||
|- | |- | ||
|mal | |mal | ||
| Line 70: | Line 72: | ||
|the least badly | |the least badly | ||
|- | |- | ||
! colspan="2" |Irregular | |||
|- | |- | ||
!French | |||
!English | |||
|- | |- | ||
|pis | |pis | ||
| Line 86: | Line 88: | ||
{| class="wikitable" | {| class="wikitable" | ||
!French | |||
!English | |||
|- | |- | ||
|tant pis | |tant pis | ||
| Line 104: | Line 106: | ||
|at the worst, . . . | |at the worst, . . . | ||
|} | |} | ||
Revision as of 10:44, 22 October 2021
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, . . . |