HaloBahasa

More, most, and the same as

Three small words turn any adjective into a comparison. No irregular forms, no exceptions.

a1Lesson 29 of 434 min

By the end of this lesson

  • Compare two things
  • Say something is the most, or the same

English has big, bigger, biggest, and then good, better, best to break the pattern. Indonesian has one pattern and no exceptions.

More

lebih goes in front.

lebih besar ‘bigger’
lebih murah ‘cheaper’

Than

daripada, often shortened to dari.

Ini lebih murah daripada itu. ‘This is cheaper than that.’

Most

paling in front.

paling besar ‘biggest’
paling enak ‘the tastiest’

There is also a prefix, ter-, doing the same job: terbesar ‘biggest’, termurah ‘cheapest’. It belongs more to writing and signage than to conversation, and you will meet it properly at B1 where ter- turns out to have three different uses.

For now: recognise it on a shop sign, say paling out loud.

The same

sama with dengan.

Ini sama dengan itu. ‘This is the same as that.’
Harganya sama. ‘The price is the same.’

Sama on its own also means ‘with’ in casual speech, replacing dengan. Context separates them easily.

Putting it to work

At a market this is most of what you need:

Ada yang lebih murah? ‘Is there a cheaper one?’
Yang paling murah berapa? ‘How much is the cheapest one?’

Yang is a small word that turns an adjective into “the one that is”. It does an enormous amount of work in Indonesian and gets a full lesson at B1.

Words from this lesson

lebihmore
palingmostTer- prefixed to the adjective does the same job.
daripadathan
samasameSama dengan, 'the same as'.