Language/French/Grammar/Well-Better-Worse
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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, . . . |