比

RuleA + bi + B + adjective: "A is more ... than B." The bi-phrase comes before the adjective.

Curiosity

English puts the comparison after the adjective: "taller than him." Where does Chinese put it?

Intuition

bi is a scale that weighs A against B. You set the thing compared (bi + B) before the adjective first, then state the result with the adjective.

Visualization

Reorder the English-like [I][tall][than him] into Chinese [I][bi][him][tall]. The bi-phrase moves before the adjective.

English-like (comparison after adjective)

我subject高adjective比他standard

Chinese order (bi-phrase before adjective)

我subject比比 (comparison)他standard高adjective

Essence

A bi B + adjective. Put the degree after the adjective: gao yidian (a little), gao de duo (much). Do not put hen or feichang before the adjective (A bi B hen gao is wrong). The negative is A meiyou B + adjective ("A is not as ... as B").

Examples

我比他高。

I am taller than him.

今天比昨天冷一点。

Today is a little colder than yesterday.

这个比那个便宜得多。

This is much cheaper than that.

Mini-quiz

Which has the correct order for "my older brother is taller than me"?