Comparison I

I have noticed that many of my fellow students studying Japanese do not actually know how to compare one object to another in Japanese. Hopefully, this will broaden their minds.

 

In Japanese, one way two objects can be compared in terms of how interesting, bigger, etc. they are is by using the particles のほうが and より roughly translated as "more" and "than". In what way the objects are being compared (eg: by height, width, level of preference, etc.) is expressed immediately after the particles followed by です (or だ if you plan on speaking/writing more informally).

The following is a basic pattern on how the grammar pattern can be correctly used.

 

"object to be compared 1"のほうが "object to be compared 2"より　"form of comparison"です。

Having a translation of: ‘"object to be compared 1" is more "form of comparison" than "object to be compared 2"’

Note: the objects to be compared are usually nouns while the form of comparison is usually an adjective (however there are some exceptions, eg: あたまがいい　("intelligent") is also acceptable)

 

Examples:

 

北海道のほうが　本州より　小さいです。

"Hokkaido is smaller than Honshu."

 

(私は) 本のほうが　ざっしより　好きです。

"I like books more than magazines"

 

山田さんのほうが　木むらさんより　あたまがいいです。

"Mr. Yamada is smarter (lit. ‘more intelligent’) than Mr. Kimura."

 

Often, one might want the word which is placed before the particle のほうが to become the subject of what they are about to discuss. By using のほうが, the word placed before it does not become the subject. In order to make the word the subject, all that needs to be done is substitute のほうが for the topic marker は. Hence, our grammar pattern becomes:

　　　

"object to be compared 1"は "object to be compared 2"より　"form of comparison"です。

This yields the exact same translation as described for the pattern using のほうが.

 

It is also possible to combine のほうが and は together (thus making のほうがは). Our pattern consequently becomes:

　

"object to be compared 1"のほうがは "object to be compared 2"より　"form of comparison"です。

Once again, this will give the same translation as described for the pattern using のほうが the word present before のほうがは also becomes the subject due to the presence of the topic marker. 

 

That’s all for Comparison I. Comparison II will be up soon.