GCSE Spanish Grammar: Comparatives, Superlatives and Negatives

Comparing, ranking and saying what you never do are everyday tools in the reformed GCSE in Spanish (first exams in 2026). The grammar list sets them out in two tiers. At Foundation tier: comparisons with más … que, menos … que and tan … como, the irregular mejor and peor, and negatives with no … nada, nadie, nunca and ninguno. At Higher tier: superlative adjectives (la ciudad más grande de España, el mejor día de mi vida) and the negatives ya no, tampoco and ni … ni. In reading texts you may also meet adjectives ending in -ísimo, meaning very or extremely. (The tiers follow the Spanish grammar list in AQA's specification, for example.)

These structures raise answers across the exam: a comparison and a superlative in a photo card conversation, negatives in a description of your healthy lifestyle, and all of them in translation both ways, where word order and the double negative are easy to get wrong.

The quiz has twelve questions, each with one correct Spanish sentence and three typical errors, or a meaning to choose: superlatives with de rather than que, la mejor película and el peor jugador, facilísimo, menos … que with agreement, nunca without an extra no, nadie with a singular verb, no … nada, ningún before a masculine noun, a mí tampoco against a mí también, ya no, and no … ni … ni. The explanations state the rule each time and mention the other correct word order where Spanish allows two.

The thirteen flashcards summarise comparatives, mejor and peor, mayor and menor, superlatives, -ísimo, each negative word with an example, and the difference between todavía, ya and ya no.

The written sheet practises the forms in sentences: translations with comparatives and superlatives, turning positive sentences negative, agreeing with también and tampoco, a short comparison of two places, a paragraph of habits with four negatives, a reading sentence with -ísimo, and an explanation of the rules. Model answers accompany every item.

• Compare with más … que, menos … que, tan … como, mejor, peor, mayor and menor
• Form superlatives with de and the irregular el mejor and el peor (Higher)
• Understand -ísimo in reading texts
• Use no … nada, nadie, nunca and ningún with the Spanish double negative
• Use ya no, tampoco and ni … ni (Higher)

Practice material written by Zestly, based on the DfE GCSE modern foreign languages subject content (2022), Spanish grammar, and on the Spanish grammar list in AQA's GCSE Spanish specification (8692, version 1.0, section 3.2), used here as an example.