'Mejor' acting as an adverb

DavidC1 Kwiziq Q&A super contributor

'Mejor' acting as an adverb

I [incorrectly] made "mejor" plural - to agree with "they" - by writing: "Eran aún mejores que en mis sueños". [Or could it also be correct with "mejores"?]


Perhaps we have to regard "mejor" as an adverb here, not as an adjective - so we should not make it plural - despite the fact that (in English) it looks like a complement of the verb "eran".


My grammar book (by Butt and Benjamin) seems to confirm that^ by giving the example "Aquí estamos mejor" = "We're better [off] here".


It seems that we need to be careful in deciding whether a particular word in Spanish should be treated as an adverb rather than an adjective. In particular, we should avoid the temptation of trying to judge it according to its grammatical context in English. [A well known example of that, is of course "Está bien"].

Asked 3 years ago
InmaKwiziq team memberCorrect answer

Hola David,

I went back to the exercise to revise this and, as you say, you could take mejor as an adverb or an adjective. I added the options using "mejores" as correct too. 

If we use it as an adverb in the singular invariable form "mejor", it is as if we were saying:

"Ellos tocaban aún mejor que en mis sueños."

Saludos

Inma

'Mejor' acting as an adverb

I [incorrectly] made "mejor" plural - to agree with "they" - by writing: "Eran aún mejores que en mis sueños". [Or could it also be correct with "mejores"?]


Perhaps we have to regard "mejor" as an adverb here, not as an adjective - so we should not make it plural - despite the fact that (in English) it looks like a complement of the verb "eran".


My grammar book (by Butt and Benjamin) seems to confirm that^ by giving the example "Aquí estamos mejor" = "We're better [off] here".


It seems that we need to be careful in deciding whether a particular word in Spanish should be treated as an adverb rather than an adjective. In particular, we should avoid the temptation of trying to judge it according to its grammatical context in English. [A well known example of that, is of course "Está bien"].

Sign in to submit your answer

Don't have an account yet? Join today

Ask a question

Find your Spanish level for FREE

Test your Spanish to the CEFR standard

Find your Spanish level
Clever stuff happening!