I need some help with meilleure and mieux?

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1

How would I use these in a sentence? These words are confusing. I tried searching it on google but the explainations were confusing too :stuck_out_tongue:

2

It’s not easy to explain. You need to understand the difference between “bon” and “bien”, because:
mieux = “plus bien” which we don’t say in French (in English better=“more good”)
meilleur = “plus bon”

Two examples:
La vanille c’est bon mais le chocolat c’est meilleur.
Travailler c’est bien mais les vacances c’est mieux.

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3

Thank you for your help. French grammar stresses me out. I love studying french grammar but sometimes it’s confusing. I think bien is associated with feelings and health whereas bon would be something to do with being correct or something. But I hope my brain will get use to it.

4

Exactly! You’re right with bien being associated with feelings/health and bon with being correct.
A few examples:

  • Ca va ? / Tu vas bien ?

  • Oui je vais bien, merci.

  • C’est bon ce que j’ai fait ? (un exercice par exemple)

  • Oui c’est parfait !

French grammar is confusing for French people, too. :wink:
Plus, on most websites aiming at explaining it, they use scaring words like adjectif Ă©pithĂšte or conjonction de coordination, which make things even more confusing.

Allez bon rĂ©veillon et Ă  l’annĂ©e prochaine ! :slight_smile:

5

I will try to help a bit, although I am not sure it will add much to what has already been said. Plus, it is an oversimplification, but might get you started:

Meilleur means better, and Mieux also means better. This is confusing, because in English we only have one word (better) to mean two things (more good, and more well).

First, let’s look at the difference between “good” and “well” in English.

Good relates to nouns: I saw a good movie. He has a good friend. She makes good food


Well relates to verbs: He swam well, He did well in the test. My teacher explained it well.

Now, in each of these cases we could also use better in English:

I saw a better (more good) movie. He has a better (more good) friend. She makes better (more good) food


He swam better (more well), He did better (more well) in the test. My teacher explained it better (more well).

In French, though, they have two different words for these two different uses of “better”.

For all the “more good” examples above (dealing with nouns) you use Meilleur (formally, it is an adjective).

For all the “more well” examples above (dealing with verbs) you use Mieux (formally, it is an adverb).

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6

@Jorgis - I wish they kept things simple. Thank you :slight_smile:

@ Anthony - Thank you for the explaination. I’m starting to understand. I think I know.

7

Are the examples are right? Mon français est meilleur and Elle marche mieux
 I think it’s making sense to me.