Comparative + ngem

Comparing Two Things

Level 2

Napintas becomes napinpintas ‘more beautiful’; bassit becomes basbassit ‘smaller’.

How It Works

For the attested consonant-initial bases taught here, copy the initial consonant–vowel–consonant portion before the base. Thus na- + pin + pintas gives napinpintas ‘more beautiful’, while bas + bassit gives basbassit ‘smaller’. With these na- adjectives, the copied portion follows the prefix.

The ordinary clause places the comparative adjective before its subject, followed by ngem and the comparison standard. A personal-name standard retains ni; a common-noun standard can take ti. Pronoun standards are also attested.

Keep degree copying separate from shorter CV plural copying: napinpintas means ‘more beautiful’, whereas napipintas is a plural descriptive form. Comparative copying expresses a relative degree rather than selecting the highest degree in a group. Learn vowel-initial forms and lexical variants from their actual attestations; the consonant-initial examples do not supply a universal spelling formula.

Examples (3)

  1. Napinpintas ti gitara ngem ti biolin.

    The guitar is more beautiful than the violin.

    The copied pin follows na-; ngem introduces a common-noun standard.

  2. Basbassit ti banga ngem ti kahon.

    The pot is smaller than the box.

    A greater degree of smallness gives the English comparative smaller.

  3. Napigpigsa ni Mila ngem ni Celso.

    Mila is stronger than Celso.

    The copied pig follows na-; the named standard retains ni.

How It Connects

Tap a pattern to see what it builds on and what it leads to.

Comparative + ngemLevel 2Comparing Two Things

Learn This First

In attested comparative forms, copy the base's initial CVC; ngem introduces ‘than’.