A Greater Degree

Level 4

Kbir → ikbar and sabiħ → isbaħ change internally; iktar kiesħa retains feminine agreement.

How It Works

Some adjectives have an internal comparative: kbir → ikbar, ‘big → bigger’; sabiħ → isbaħ, ‘beautiful → more beautiful’; għoli → ogħla, ‘high → higher’. These comparative forms remain unchanged with masculine, feminine and plural referents. Learn the lexical pairs; internal formation is not available for every gradable adjective.

Analytic comparison uses iktar or inqas with a positive adjective. This adjective retains ordinary agreement: iktar kiesaħ / kiesħa / kesħin. A minn phrase identifies the comparison standard.

Compare kamra sabiħa, ‘a beautiful room’, with Din il-kamra isbaħ minn dik, ‘This room is more beautiful than that one’. Feminine agreement appears in the positive, while the internal comparative is invariant. Article-bearing l-isbaħ identifies a highest degree and can precede a noun.

Examples (3)

  1. Din il-kamra isbaħ minn dik.

    This room is more beautiful than that one.

    Invariant comparative with a feminine subject.

  2. Dawn il-kotba ikbar minn dawk.

    These books are bigger than those.

    Ikbar remains invariant with a plural subject.

  3. Dan il-ħanut ogħla minn dak.

    This shop is higher than that one.

    Elevation comparison; a price context instead permits more expensive.

How It Connects

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

A Greater DegreeLevel 4

Learn This First

Teach established internal comparative pairs alongside analytic comparison, with each strategy's distinct agreement behavior.

Learn Next

Patterns that build on this one.