meilleur ou mieux

Question

"Cette maison est bien. Oui, elle est mieux que l'autre." Since this sentence is describing a noun which means we are using an adjective instead of an adverb, shouldn't we use "meillure" instead of "mieux"?

Accepted Answer

Bonjour Helen,
Alan described very well how you can have ‘être’ + mieux / meilleur.
Remember: bon → meilleur    bien  →  mieux

Ce gâteau est bon (meaning ‘délicieux’) = this cake is good
     mais ton gâteau est meilleur = but your cake is better
Cette maison est bien (meaning ‘de bonne qualité’) = this house is good
     oui, elle est mieux que l’autre = yes it is better than the other one

I hope this is helpful.
Bonne journée!

Answer

When the verb is être, you can use either mieux or meilleur, so the choice depends on the following guidelines in the lesson:When to use bon/bonne (adjective) and therefore meilleur1. qualifying something as good/better/the best for a usage, or good/better/the best in taste (food)2. qualifying someone as a good/better/the best person or good/better/the best at somethingWhen to use bien (adverb) and therefore mieux1. making a general statement with être about something or someone being fine/OK/better/the bestThese guidelines are not very clear, and I expect sometimes mieux and meilleur will both be possible.