Comparing in Spanish - as much

¡Hola!

"Comparison is the thief of joy" said someone once! But sometimes it's just an useful tool to use when we speak, right?

Let's see how we compare in Spanish! Starting with recaping more and less:

More than

Más ... que - more...than

We don't say "prettier", "sillier", etc. We always use this structure, "more pretty", "more silly", etc.

Sometimes they will go together, sometimes there'd be something in the middle... there's no rule about this you follow the same order as in English.

Ex:

- Él conduce más que yo - He drives more than me. - Nosotros somos más amables que ellos - We are kinder (more kind, literally) than them.

Less than

It works the same way as "more than"

menos ... que - less... than

Ex:

- Tenemos menos problemas que tú -We have less problems than you. - Lee menos que yo - he/she reads less than me*

Equivalent

This one expresses that there is the same level of something on both parts.

It changes depending on what we compare:

Comparing amount

"As much or as many as ..."

Tanto / tanta / tantos /tantas ...como

We have four versions here to choose from, masculine singular, feminine singular, and plural of both.

This way, we agree this word with the thing of whose amount we talk about, which is a "noun" and it goes right in the middle.

Did you notice that we don't use que anymore? Now we use como, when it's equivalence, meaning "as" in this situation.

For more meanings of "como", see this blogpost.

Ex:

Hay tantos niños aquí como allí - There are as many children here as there.

Tienes tanto miedo como yo - You have as much fear as I.

A slightly different case we have when using just tanto and no noun, for a generic "as much", still about quantity but without specifying or being particular.

Ex: Tengo tanto como tú - I have as much as you.

Comparing actions

This could be the intensity or frequency of an action.

To do something as much as ...

Tanto ...como

Ex:

Estudio tanto como él -I study as much as him. No corréis tanto como nosotros - You guys don't run as much as us.

Notice that this last one is in negative, so in practice there's no equivalence anymore, as it means the same as "you guys run less than us" but because we phrase it this way it doesn't matter, we still follow these rules.

Comparing qualities /states

To be or do something as ... as ...

Tan ... como

In the middle, there's always an adjective / describing word.

Ex:

• Ella está tan cansada como tú - She is as tired as you.
• Somos tan tozudos como ellos - We are as stubborn as them.
• Dibujas tan bien como Rocío - You draw as well as Rocío.

One more note

You might have noticed that when we compare we use the subject pronouns (yo, tú, él...).

This means we don't say, for example, I'm as good as HER/HIM/THEM we say "I'm as good as she/he/they"

and the same thing goes for "she's as good as me", we say "she's as good as I".

Soy tan bueno como él/ ella/ ellos

Ella es tan buena como yo

That's all for today!

Hope it helped! :)

¡Hasta pronto!