Learning Greek

Adjectives

Adjectives decline, agreeing in case, number, and gender. Nominative singular male is the dictionary form. Most end –ος.

The general pattern is that adjectives decline the same way as the nouns. For example, όμορφος or beautiful:

Adjectives with a vowel before the ending, like νέος or new, use –α in the feminine singular:

Some that end –κός or –χός use –ια for the feminine singular, although it seems that you can also use the usual –η.

Comparative, Superlative

The simpler way to form the comparative, and in speech the most common way, is to insert πιο or "more" before the adjective.

The alternative is to add the suffix –τερος.

The relative superlative is formed by preceding the comparative by the definite article.

There is also an absolute superlative formed by adding the suffix –τατος, but this is described as "a rather learned form" and results in a comment stressing an exceptional quality or property, and not in a comparison to others.

Ο σκύλος μου είναι καλός.
My dog is good.
Ο σκύλος μου είναι πιο καλός από τον δικό σου.
My dog is better than yours.
Ο σκύλος μου είναι καλύτερος από τον δικό σου.
My dog is better than yours.
Ο σκύλος μου είναι ο καλύτερος.
My dog is best.
Ο σκύλος μου είναι ο καλύτατος.
My dog is remarkably good.

Αυτό το φαγητό είναι κακό.
This food is bad.
Αυτό το φαγητό είναι χειρότερο από το μαγείρεμα μου.
This food is worse than my cooking.
Αυτό το φαγητό είναι το χειρότερο από όλα.
This food is the worst of all.

Είέαι το πιο μεγάλο σπίτι.
or
Είέαι το μεγαλύτερο σπίτι.
It is the biggest house.

Αυτοί ήταν οι πιο καλοί φίλοι μας.
These were our best friends.

The –τατος form can mean "very":
Αυτό είναι ακριβό.
This is expensive.
Αυτό είναι πολύ ακριβό.
This is very expensive.
or
Αυτό είναι ακριβότατος
This is very expensive.