Leasing: use without ownership

Two entries in this list stand side by side and are built on the two commonest comparatives in German. Die Mehrkilometer are the kilometres driven beyond the agreed figure, die Minderkilometer the ones left undriven. Mehr belongs to viel, and minder belongs to wenig — which surprises most learners, because wenig already has the regular weniger. German keeps both. Weniger is the everyday form; minder is the formal one and survives in fixed phrases such as mehr oder minder and nicht minder, and above all at the front of words: der Minderwert, mindern, minderjährig. Its superlative is mindest-, which is why die Mindestlaufzeit is a minimum term and mindestens means at least. So a contract that charges for Mehrkilometer and refunds Minderkilometer is not using an odd pair of words: it is setting the comparative of viel against the formal comparative of wenig.