"старший брат"

Translation: the older brother

[Nate_J]

"Старш" reminds me of the German word "stark," which means strong.

[Albantar]

And the Norwegian word "stor" that means "big", and the Dutch word "stoer" that means "heroic, strong". :)

[Adrian53542]

It appears to be related to the Norwegian "stor". I enjoy finding connections like these.
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/stor#Norwegian_Bokm%C3%A5l

[Peter643610]

Very nice point thanks

[Albantar]

... is watching!

[nizzle1931]

Правда!

[Chucklenuts7]

Can "Starshiy" also be "Senior", as in "Starshiy Serzhant"?

[Neon_Iceberg]

Yes, this word also means a higher position than similar ones. "Ста́рший сержа́нт", "ста́рший ме́неджер", etc

[Bobboski]

Is this a majority comparative? 'The older brother' as in 'The "more old" brother'? Or is it just a banal 'old'?

[Neon_Iceberg]

"Старший брат" means "more old brother". If you want to compare brothers - "этот брат старше другого" = "this brother is older than another one"

[basm92]

Война - это мир
Свобода - это рабство
Незнание - сила

[indiefilm45]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but is it correct to note that "старшее брат" also means older brother, but in a relative application. Such as in "the older brother (of an unspecified number of brothers) won the race." "Старшее брат выграл гонку."

[2E3S]

older=старше (or старее which has a different meaning) as a relative word. Старший behaves like any regular adjective.

[indiefilm45]

Yeah, that's right. It's been a few too many years since college Russian. Thanks!

[amaybury]

So are there rules for making adjectives comparative?

So in English, old becomes older, hard becomes harder etc, and as I understand it, старый means old, while старше means older, yes?

So if I replace the ый with ше in a similar adjective, does that make it comparative? Or is that too much simplicity to hope for?

[IwantToLea20884]

You normally replace ый/ий with ее or ей for comparative forms. -ше is actually an exclusive one

[IanMcLean4]

I like this word. It sounds like "stache" a shorted version of "moustache" so the way i see it is - he is her older brother with a stache, or старший брат

[YOGRAJKAPO]

In english language the older relative, say a brother is referred to as elder brother while the word older is used for an unrelated older person. Would it not be right to translate it as, elder brother in english.

[daughterofAlbion]

It is correct to translate it as "elder brother", and Duolingo accepts this. However "older" can also be used within the family, if the person is also considered "old". Hence I can say "my older uncle" (who is 90) as well as "my elder uncle", but not "my older grandchild" (who is presumably still "young")

[Shivaadh]

The hint says ctarshii means both older (comparative) and oldest (superlative). Does it really also mean oldest, or is the hint wrong?