Imagine that you are buying a sofa. Your friend points to one next to you. You think that the sofa is huge. You want a smaller, more regular sized one. In this case, you would use malpli granda.
Now, imagine that you are buying a paintbrush. Your friend points to one next to you. You think that the paintbrush is small, but you need a really tiny one. In this case you would use pli malgranda.
Another example: there are two dogs playing in the park and someone asks you which dog is yours. ”Mia hundo estas la...”
- Both dogs are big - la malpli granda
- Both dogs are small - la pli malgranda
- One is big, one is small - la malgranda