Difference between revisions of "Language/French/Grammar/Well-Better-Worse"

Revision as of 10:40, 22 October 2021

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

One adverb in French has special comparative and superlative forms:

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:

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, . . .

@@ Line 21: / Line 21: @@
 the least well
-tab1
+{| class="wikitable"
+| rowspan="5" |Elle chante
+|bien
+|-
+|mieux
+|-
+|moins bien
+|-
+|le mieux
+|-
+|le moins bien
+|-
+| rowspan="5" |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:
-Tab2
+{| class="wikitable"
+| colspan="2" |Regular
+|-
+|French
+|English
+|-
+|mal
+|badly
+|-
+|plus mal
+|worse
+|-
+|moins mal
+|less badly
+|-
+|le plus mal
+|the worst
+|-
+|le moins mal
+|the least  badly
+|-
+| colspan="2" |Irregular
+|-
+|French
+|English
+|-
+|pis
+|worse
+|-
+|le pis
+|the worst
+|}
 pis and le pis only occur these days in fixed expressions like:
-tab3
+{| class="wikitable"
+|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, . . .
+|}
-==Video: The Pronoun ON in French==
 <youtube>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JUGE0zIayIw</youtube>