Irregular Comparatives: bon → meilleur, bien → mieux
ക്രമരഹിതമായ താരതമ്യരൂപങ്ങൾ: bon → meilleur, bien → mieux
A small handful of very common words refuse to take plus at all, forming their own irregular comparative instead — worth learning as fixed exceptions rather than derived forms.
Grammar Comparison
വ്യാകരണ താരതമ്യം
bon (adjective) → meilleur
Ce gâteau est meilleur. (This cake is better.) — never plus bon
ഈ കേക്ക് കൂടുതൽ നല്ലതാണ്.
bon ('good') has its own irregular comparative, meilleur, which agrees in gender and number like any adjective: meilleur, meilleure, meilleurs, meilleures. Saying plus bon is a mistake native speakers will immediately notice — this form simply has to be memorized as its own word, whereas Malayalam just places കൂടുതൽ ('more') before നല്ലത് ('good') with no irregularity at all.
bien (adverb) → mieux
Elle chante mieux que moi. (She sings better than me.)
അവൾ എന്നെക്കാൾ നന്നായി പാടുന്നു.
bien ('well', describing how an action is done) becomes mieux, not plus bien. Because it's an adverb, mieux never changes form regardless of gender or number — unlike meilleur, which agrees. Keep the pair straight: meilleur describes a noun (a better cake), mieux describes a verb (sings better), the way Malayalam distinguishes നല്ലത് ('good', describing a thing) from നന്നായി ('well', describing an action).
mauvais (adjective) → pire or plus mauvais
C'est pire. / C'est plus mauvais. (It's worse.) — both acceptable
ഇത് കൂടുതൽ മോശമാണ്.
Unlike bon, mauvais ('bad') tolerates both an irregular form (pire, more common for abstract or serious situations) and the regular plus mauvais (more common for concrete things, like food or weather). Either is correct — pire tends to sound slightly more formal or dramatic.
Vocabulary
വാക്കുകൾ
- Malayalam
- കൂടുതൽ നല്ല (ആൺലിംഗം ഏകവചനം)kooduthal nalla (aanlingam ekavachanam)
- English
- better (masc. singular)
- Malayalam
- കൂടുതൽ നല്ല (പെൺലിംഗം ഏകവചനം)kooduthal nalla (penlingam ekavachanam)
- English
- better (fem. singular)
- Malayalam
- കൂടുതൽ നല്ല (ബഹുവചനം)kooduthal nalla (bahuvachanam)
- English
- better (plural)
- Malayalam
- കൂടുതൽ നന്നായിkooduthal nannaayi
- English
- better (adverb, invariable)
- Malayalam
- ഏറ്റവും നല്ലത്ettavum nallathu
- English
- the best (adjective)
- Malayalam
- ഏറ്റവും നന്നായിettavum nannaayi
- English
- the best (adverb)
- Malayalam
- കൂടുതൽ മോശമായkooduthal moshamaaya
- English
- worse (irregular)
- Malayalam
- കൂടുതൽ മോശമായkooduthal moshamaaya
- English
- worse (regular alternative)