We’ve covered quite a lot about adjectives in Hindi so far, so you should be kind of familiar with them by now. If you can’t remember or you want some revise then have a quick read of Lesson #44 and Lesson #67. 

For example we could say, मैं लम्बा हूँ main lambaa hoon - I am tall (said by a male). But what if you wanted to say ‘I am taller than you’ or 'I am the tallest’? Well that’s what we’re going to cover today! 

In the picture below we have a very short man and quite a tall woman. So just to revise what we know already, the man would say…

मैं बहुत छोटा हूँ main bahut chotaa hoon
- I am very short (said by a male) 

And the woman would say..

मैं काफ़ी लम्बी हूँ main kaafee lambee hoon
- I am quite tall (said by a female)

That’s quite straight forward, yeah? Ready for the new stuff? If the man wanted to say 'I am shorter than you’ then he would say;

मैं तुम से छोटा हूँ main tum se chotaa hoon
- I am shorter than you (said by a male).  

And if the woman wanted to say 'I am taller than you’, she would say;

मैं तुम से लम्बी हूँ main tum se lambee hoon
- I am taller than you (said by a female).  

Can you see what we’ve done? All we do is add तुम से tum se into the sentence, which is just the words तुम tum - You and से se - a Postposition meaning 'from’. Don’t worry too much about the literal meaning. 

Ready for another example? Here we have a skinny woman and a really big fat man. He’s actually so fat the woman is feeding him cake! Can we imagine what the man and the woman would say? 

मैं तुम से मोटा हूँ main tum se motaa hoon
- I am fatter than you (said by a male).  

मैं तुम से पतली हूँ main tum se patlee hoon
- I am slimmer than you (said by a female).  

Now suppose we give our big fat man the name राज Raj and our skinny woman the name दीपल Deepal. Saying 'Raj is fatter than Deepal’ works in exactly the same way; 

राज दीपल से मोटा है raaj deepal se motaa hai
- Raj is fatter than Deepal. 

In fact राज Raj is actually so fat we might even want to say 'Raj is the fattest’! How do we do this? Well, saying 'Raj is the fattest’ is really the same as saying 'Raj is fatter than everyone’ and that’s what we say in Hindi. The word for everyone or everything is सब sab, so we say…

राज सब से मोटा है raaj sab se motaa hai
- Raj is the fattest (fatter than everyone!)  

You got it? And if we found the most beautiful flower in the world we could say; 

ये फूल सब से सुन्दर हैं ye phool sab se sundar hain
- These flower are the most beautiful
(beautiful-est, beautiful-er than everything) 

And finally this really tall business man could say…

मैं सब से लम्बा हूँ main sab se lambaa hoon
- I am the tallest (said by a male).  

Phew! Hows that? Try practicing by writing your own sentences. Oh, and a word of advise; don’t say 'You are the fattest’ to someone unless you want a slap! Be sure to ask in the comments section below if you have any questions.

Back to Beginner’s Grammar.