Irregular Comparatives: bon → meilleur, bien → mieux

Think of this rule like a fork in the road. You must choose a path based on your sentence. Are you describing a person or an object? Or are you describing how someone does something? This is the core secret. Bon is an adjective. It pairs with nouns like "bread" or "teacher". When "good" becomes "better", bon becomes meilleur. Now, look at bien. It is an adverb. It pairs with verbs like "speak" or "run". When "well" becomes "better", bien becomes mieux. It is like a grammar traffic light. Green means you chose the right word. Red means you used an adjective for a verb. It takes a little practice to see the difference. But your brain will start to click soon. Imagine you are at a cafe in Paris. You want a better croissant. That is a thing, so use meilleur. You want to speak French better. That is an action, so use mieux. See? It is quite intuitive once you start.

1. 1Identify the starting word you want to change.
2. 2Is the word bon (good)? Then use meilleur (better).
3. 3Check the gender and number of your noun.
4. 4Add an e for feminine: meilleure.
5. 5Add an s for masculine plural: meilleurs.
6. 6Add es for feminine plural: meilleures.
7. 7Is the word bien (well)? Then use mieux (better).
8. 8Do not add any endings to mieux. It never changes.
9. 9Place meilleur after the noun or after the verb être.
10. 10Place mieux after the action verb you are describing.

Use meilleur when you compare two specific things. Maybe you are at a job interview. You want to say you are a better candidate. You are a person (a noun). So you say, "Je suis un meilleur candidat." Use it for food, movies, and people. It is all about the quality of the object. Now, switch to mieux. Use this when you talk about performance. Maybe you are giving directions to a tourist. You want to say your friend knows the city better. Knowing is an action. So you use mieux. Use it for sports, work habits, and health. If you feel better after a cold, use mieux. This is because "feeling" is an internal action or state. It is not an object you can touch. Think of meilleur as the "Quality Label". Think of mieux as the "Performance Boost". Both are great for making your French sound natural.

Never use plus bon or plus bien. This is a major red flag in French. It sounds like saying "more gooder" in English. It might make your French teacher cry a little. Okay, maybe just a tiny bit. Avoid using meilleur with verbs of action. For example, do not say you run meilleur. That is a common mistake for beginners. Also, be careful with the word mieux and nouns. You cannot have a mieux car. A car is a thing. It needs meilleure. Also, do not confuse these with superlatives. We are only comparing two things right now. If you want the "best", you need a definite article. But let's save that for another day. Focus on the two-way comparison for now. Keep your adjectives for things and adverbs for actions.

Many learners say plus bon because it is easy. They think it follows the normal plus + adjective rule. But French likes to be special here. This is an irregular pattern for a reason. Another mistake is forgetting the e on meilleure. If you talk about a pizza, it must be feminine. "Cette pizza est meilleure." If you miss the e, it sounds slightly off. Learners also mix up mieux and meilleur in health. In English, we say "I am better." In French, you must say "Je vais mieux." Using meilleur here implies you are a "better quality human". That sounds a bit like you are a robot upgrade. Stick to mieux for health and feelings. It is the safer and more natural choice.

Most French adjectives are simple to compare. You just add plus before the word. For example, plus grand means taller. Plus petit means smaller. But bon and bien refuse to follow the crowd. They are the rebels of the French language. They change their whole shape. This is similar to mauvais (bad). Sometimes mauvais becomes pire (worse). It is a small group of irregular words. You just need to memorize these few exceptions. Once you do, the rest of the language feels easy. Think of it like a special VIP club. Only the most common words get to be irregular. They are used so much that they changed over time. Embrace the irregularity. It makes your French sound authentic and polished.