melhor and melhorar

By James Hall / / (4) Advanced Portuguese
Melhor and melhorar

Most verbs have various related incarnations as nouns, adjectives, adverbs etc. MELHOR and MELHORAR are super-used words/verbs but also causes big confusion - I think just because these are (1) hard to pronounce, and (2) have so many similar sounding variations.

Melhor and melhorar can be used in different ways to express:
improve, improvement, improving, improved
best, better

melhor and melhorar: diversity or confusion?

melhor (adjetivo)

É o melhor filme do ano. > It's the best movie of the year.
É a melhor loja nessa rua. > It's the best store on the street.

melhor (advérbio)

Eu preciso falar melhor. > I need to speak better.

o melhor (substantivo masculino)

Ela está fazendo o melhor para todos. > She's doing her best for everyone.
O melhoramento foi óbvio. > The improvement was obvious.

a melhor, melhora melhoria (substantivo feminino)
BEST:

Ela pensou na melhor solução. > She thought of the best solution.

IMPROVEMENT (things):

Essa casa precisa de melhorias. > This house needs improvements.

IMPROVEMENT (health):

O paciente já apresenta melhora. > The patient is already improving.
A qualidade da vida pode ser melhorada. > The quality of life can be improved.

***! Here you are delving deep into grammar voodoo. In this case I think it's unimportant to learn the convoluted grammar rule (exception) that is behind these examples. The important thing is to get the hang of (ie, read & listen) how Brazilians correctly use this in common examples.

How about in the gerund (ing)?
Fazendo o melhor. Literally, making the better. When you want to express the idea of improvement or, to improve you are going to use the verb melhorar.

Estamos melhorando. > We're improving.

Or,

Estamos dando uma melhorada. > We're improving (things)

Brazilians very often create these versions, iterations using the verb DAR. Brazilians just LOVE TO USE DAR.

And there is also using melhor to compare things:

Sua bicicleta é bem melhor do que a minha. > Your bicycle is better than mine.

Melhor and melhorar can be used in different ways to express:
improve, improvement, improving, improved
best, better

Here's how to pronounce the "lh".
Let's hear it from a native shall we?

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Melhor and melhorar
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