I'm Maja, I teach this language for a living, and comparatives are one of the rare corners where Serbian and Montenegrin are kinder to you than English. English has two systems and makes you guess: "bigger" but "more beautiful," "happier" but "more intelligent." Here there's basically one, and it's an ending. Once you hear it, you can't unhear it.
The default: just add -iji
Take the adjective, add -iji (for a masculine form; the feminine is -ija, neuter -ije, because it still has to agree with its noun). That's the comparative for the majority of adjectives:
| Adjective | Meaning | Comparative |
|---|
| nov | new | noviji — newer |
| star | old | stariji — older |
| pametan | clever | pametniji — cleverer |
| hladan | cold | hladniji — colder |
| zanimljiv | interesting | zanimljiviji — more interesting |
Notice pametan and hladan quietly drop the -a- before adding the ending — that little vanishing a is a feature all over the grammar, so it's worth clocking here. Agreement still applies, so a newer car is noviji auto but a newer book is novija knjiga. If adjective endings still feel shaky, they're the foundation under all of this — I walk through them in making adjectives agree.
The short group: -ji, and a consonant that changes shape
A cluster of common, short adjectives don't take the full -iji. They take a bare -ji, and that j reaches back and reshapes the last consonant of the stem. It looks alarming written down and is completely regular once you've met a few:
| Adjective | Meaning | Comparative |
|---|
| jak | strong | jači — stronger |
| mlad | young | mlađi — younger |
| brz | fast | brži — faster |
| drag | dear | draži — dearer |
| tih | quiet | tiši — quieter |
| skup | expensive | skuplji — more expensive |
You don't need to memorise the sound-change rules like a linguist. Learn the handful you'll actually use — jači, mlađi, brži, skuplji — as fixed words, the way you learned "better," and the pattern seeps in by itself.
The five you can't guess
Every language keeps its most-used words irregular, because they're worn smooth by constant use. These five don't follow either rule. They're also the five you'll say most, so front-load them:
| Adjective | Comparative | Meaning |
|---|
| dobar | bolji | good → better |
| loš / zao | gori | bad → worse |
| velik | veći | big → bigger |
| mali | manji | small → smaller |
| dug | duži | long → longer |
Drill those until they're automatic. Bolji and veći alone will carry an astonishing number of everyday sentences.
Saying "than": od beats nego
There are two ways to join the comparison, and beginners overthink it. The clean, everywhere-correct one is od plus the genitive case:
Kotor je manji od Budve. — Kotor is smaller than Budva.
On je stariji od mene. — He's older than me.
The noun after od shifts into the genitive — that's why Budva becomes Budve and ja (I) becomes mene (me). The other option, nego, keeps the plain form: On je stariji nego ja. Both are correct. My advice for your first year: default to od + genitive and don't look back. It's shorter and it's what you'll hear most.
Superlatives are a freebie
Here's the part that feels like the language handing you money. To go from "bigger" to "biggest," you take the comparative and stick naj- on the front. No space, no other change:
| Comparative | Superlative |
|---|
| noviji — newer | najnoviji — newest |
| bolji — better | najbolji — best |
| veći — bigger | najveći — biggest |
| skuplji — more expensive | najskuplji — most expensive |
So if you can build the comparative, the superlative costs you three extra letters. Najbolja kafa u gradu — the best coffee in town. That's the sentence my student was reaching for, and now you've got it clean.
A Montenegrin footnote
None of this changes when you cross into Montenegro or open a Croatian book — same -iji, same naj-, same five irregulars. The one thing you'll see is the ijekavian spelling in words with a soft je: lijep (nice) gives ljepši / najljepši, where an ekavian Serbian text writes lep, lepši, najlepši. It's a spelling habit, not a new rule. If that split is new to you, I unpick it in Montenegrin vs Serbian: what's actually different.
Quick answers
Do I ever use više for "more"? Yes — but with verbs and nouns, not adjectives. Radim više (I work more), više kafe (more coffee). For "more clever," the "more" lives inside the adjective as -iji. That's the one habit to break.
What about "the most beautiful"? Najljepši (Montenegrin) / najlepši (Serbian). No separate "the," no separate "most" — the whole idea is one word. English speakers keep waiting for the other shoe to drop; it doesn't.
Say it out loud a few times — bolji, najbolji; veći, najveći — and it stops being grammar and starts being reflex. That's the goal with every case and ending: drill it until it's boring. The learn-Serbian roadmap puts these pieces in a sensible order, and the Gora app will keep throwing comparatives at you out loud until više dobar never crosses your mind again.